


Hot for Teacher

by unknowableroom_archivist



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Humor, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-12-08
Updated: 2007-07-05
Packaged: 2019-01-19 18:51:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 40,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12415911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unknowableroom_archivist/pseuds/unknowableroom_archivist
Summary: Lily, too caught up in her musings of James' room, had not noticed James at all. When Lily finally did look his way she was stunned with how heavily the attraction hit her. She began to wonder what it would be like to kiss him again. That was when the mantra started running through her head�: 'He's your professor...'





	1. The Call Up

**Author's Note:**

> Note from ChristyCorr, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [Unknowable Room](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Unknowable_Room), a Harry Potter archive active from 2005-2016. To preserve the archive, I began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project after May 2017. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [Unknowable Room collection profile](http://www.archiveofourown.org/collections/unknowableroom).

**Title:** _Hot For Teacher_

**Author:** erak - Erin

**Summary:** Four years after graduating Hogwarts, James Potter becomes Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts. Lily Evans is Head Girl. 

**Pairings:** Lily/James. MWPP era. 

**Disclaimer:** I own nada. J.K. Rowling, the genius that she is, owns Harry Potter and all characters or anything else that you recognize. This fic was inspired by the fic _Tainted Blue_ by Mauve Lipgloss over at fanfictionnet. Go check that out. The title was taken from the song, _Hot For Teacher_ by Van Halen. The only thing I own is everything (technically every _one_ ) you don't recognize.

**Author’s Notes:** Well, obviously this is a bit AU from the books because Lily and James were in the same year and James is now older than Lily. That said, let me touch on the age issue; James is 21 and Lily is 17. They _will_ “hook up”� so if you have issues with the difference in ages, maybe this isn’t the right fic for you. 

Also, there’s mention of drugs and alcohol consumption by minors - again, if this is a problem, please hit the back button.

Oh! One more thing - I know some things aren’t canon... the age of Bill Weasley I’m sure, and even a few other little things. I really hope that doesn’t bother you. 

 

*I’m going to continue posting Hot For Teacher here as opposed to fanfictionnet. This first chapter is unedited except for a bit in the beginning. The rest will be the same. Thanks! :D

 

 

**__**

**_“Hot For Teacher”� -Van Halen_ **

_Oh, wow, man_  
Wait a second, man  
What do you think the teacher's gonna look like this year?   
My butt, man.   
Uh! Oh yeah! 

_T-T-teacher stop that screamin'_   
_Teacher don't you see?_  
 _Don't wanna be no uptown fool_   
_Maybe I should go to hell_  
 _But I am doing well_  
 _Teacher needs to see me after school_

_I think of all the education that I've missed_   
_But then my homework was never quite like this!_

_Ow! Got it bad, Got it bad, Got it bad,_   
_I'm hot for teacher!_   
_I've got it bad, so bad_   
_I'm hot for teacher!_

_Hey, I heard you missed us_   
_We're back!_   
_(Hey!) I brought my pencil_   
_Give me something to write on, man! Whoa_

_Uh! Ooo-oo-ooo_

_I heard about your lessons but lessons are so cold_  
 _I know about this school_   
_Little girl from Cherry Lawn_   
_How can you be so bold?_  
 _How did you know that golden rule?_

_I think of all the education that I've missed!_   
_But then my homework was never quite like this!_

_Whoa! Got it bad, Got it bad, Got it bad,_   
_I'm hot for teacher!_   
_I've got it bad, so bad_   
_I'm hot for teacher!_

_Whoa!_

_Oh man, I think the clock is slow_   
_I don't feel tardy_  
 _Class dismissed! Ooh-yeah!_

_I've got it bad, Got it bad, Got it bad,_   
_I'm hot for teacher!_

_Whoa! Oh! Ooh, yes I'm hot Wow!_

_Oh my God!_

**_Chapter 1: The Call Up_ **

_Who knows the reasons why you have grown up?_  
 _Who knows the plans or why they were drawn up?_  
-“The Call Up”� by The Clash **  
__  
**

**__**

**__**

It was often said that the famous foursome, the Marauders, were the best thing to ever happen to Hogwarts. They weren’t wrong. It had only been a mere four years since the Marauders had graduated and moved on. Sirius Black and James Potter joined the Auror training group and three years later became Aurors - though they were low level ones. Remus Lupin attempted to join but because of his werewolf status was not permitted. Instead, he worked for Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He wasn’t a professor, but instead was a member of the Order of the Phoenix. He organized the meetings and often was chosen to follow the happenings of the current and biggest threat to the wizarding world; Lord Voldemort (or as he was more commonly known and called You-Know-Who). The final Marauder went by the name of Peter Pettigrew. He too worked within the Ministry, but not as an Auror with his two other friends. He worked in the International Magical Cooperation Department and even after four years, was still an intern or more commonly known as the "tea boy."

Still, no one ever expected any of the Marauders to return to Hogwarts. After all, why would they bother? They had been popular and extremely well known. Remus Lupin, Sirius Black and James Potter had been some of the biggest flirts, charmers, woman eaters… (the list really does go on) to ever walk through Hogwarts’ doors. They’d had girls crawling after them since they’d finally taken a notice of them in their third year. And they’d had no problems taking advantage of being well liked among the female population. Each one was never seen with the same girl after two, three weeks tops. This didn’t stop the girls from liking them of course. As the years went on the three became more handsome, and even little Peter Pettigrew had a few girls interested in him. It would be a good guess to say that at the age of 21, the Marauders would possibly look their best and most charming. And, at the age of 21, the Marauders would still be bachelors.

They weren’t wrong.

What they _were_ wrong about was expecting to never see the Marauders return to Hogwarts, for one Marauder was returning. _The_ Marauder. The leader of the pack. James Potter, resident Auror, was about to become the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts.

The old Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Roberts, had retired. His family had been randomly attacked by Death Eaters, followers to Lord Voldemort, and Roberts had wanted to do nothing more than go away from the magical world and find solitude. Headmaster Dumbledore had granted his request.

The search for a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher was actually a lot harder than Dumbledore would have expected it to be. There weren’t many people who were up to the job or knew much about the Dark Arts. What Hogwarts students needed, now more than ever, was someone who knew what it was like after Hogwarts. Someone who was fighting Voldemort. 

What Hogwarts needed was an Auror. 

It took him a few weeks before Dumbledore had made up his decision. James Potter had recently been a student at Hogwarts. He knew what it was like to live in the fear of Voldemort at Hogwarts. He would be able to easily relate to the students and be there as a friend as well as a Professor. All Dumbledore needed was for James to accept the position.

Which, surprisingly, James did. He’d always, like his parents, trusted and respected Dumbledore and he would always come to the aide of his old Professor. Besides, he had said, it would be worth it to see Hogwarts again. Along with "Minnie," the old (and strict) head of his house and the current Transfiguration professor. Being he was no longer a student, it would be acceptable for James to call Minerva McGonagall “Minnie”� and not have points taken away from Gryffindor. He’d told Dumbledore that he would look forward to it greatly. And no matter how much Professor McGonagall had complained when she’d heard, Dumbledore had seen her smile many times.

It would definitely be interesting to see how the year turned out.

\---

_September 1st_   
_Kings Cross Station_   
_Platform 9 ¾_   
_10:55 A.M._

The Hogwarts Express train gleamed, the red paint shined; it looked brand new. A bell went off in the distance to remind all passengers that the train would be off in five minutes. People hurried to the train, waving at parents and siblings, and pulling their luggage desperately after them.

From the middle of the platform, one girl watched them all, a small smile on her face. While not extremely beautiful - her fiery red hair, fair complexion and bright smile drew the attention of many. Her nose was small and straight and perfect. But none of these things truly mattered. In fact, it had to be said that you completely forgot the rest of her features when you caught sight of her eyes. They were bright green; probably brighter than most emerald eyes, and caught you the moment you saw them. They lit up the girl’s face, especially when she smiled.

No, not a girl. She didn’t look a year younger than nineteen, really... twenty at the most. She was dressed in the current Muggle fashions - peasant top and mini skirt - and looked particularly out of place amongst the robes of different colors. 

She didn’t seem even a little uncomfortable. 

When the bell rang again, the girl finally moved. She seemed oblivious to the stares she was receiving as she helped first years board the train and even helped some of them find a compartment. As she walked down the train various people shouted their greetings which she joyfully returned. It wasn’t until she came to the last compartment and entered it that she truly smiled.

Inside the compartment were all of her closest friends. Aside from one, they were fellow Gryffindors and her roommates. She closed the door behind her.

“Oy! Lily, where have you been?”� This came from a short haired blonde girl with light blue eyes. She was sitting closest to the window and her name was Cecelia Walters, more commonly known to her friends as Cece.

“Yeah, we’ve been waiting in here for over half an hour for you to come! Were you talking to a stone fox or something?”� The girl who spoke was sitting directly across from Cece and had the same hair cut and eyes, except she had dark brown hair instead of Cece’s blonde. The two were in fact twin sisters, the closest Lily had ever known. Her name was (ironically enough) Cordelia. They called her Cordy for short.

“Speaking of, I think I’m going to suffocate - Cece practically sprayed her _entire_ bottle of perfume on herself!”� The girl next to Cece ran to the window and opened it. “Oh good, we’re leaving.”� Jessica Whitman was, out of all of their friends, the most "tom boy-ish." She cared nothing for her appearance, granted she didn’t have to. With green eyes, though no where near as noticeable as Lily’s, a friendly personality, and chocolate brown hair, Jessica was well likeable. She was also the Quidditch Captain of the Gryffindor team.

“Stop being such a drama queen!”� This was from an amused looking girl sitting next to Cordy. She had black hair and amber eyes and was the only one of them from Ravenclaw. Like them, she was in her seventh year at Hogwarts and often complained that she had been placed in the wrong house. Her name was Aimee Chang. Her brother, too, had been in Ravenclaw and had graduated a year before her.

“You’re right Aimee,”� Jessica said, “there’s not enough room in the world for two of us. You’ll have to settle at being the only one.”�

Aimee took a puff of what was a joint currently being passed around the compartment. She shrugged and then handed it to Jessica who shook her head and instead, passed it to the last of Lily’s friends and the final seventh year Gryffindor girl.

Lacy Prewett was the shyest of the Gryffindor girls. Most of the time her head was buried in a book, which was how Lily had come to be friends with her. Both of them liked to read and study, although Lily didn’t mind putting her book down to have fun. With brown hair and brown eyes, Lacy thought she was dull. She never seemed to notice that guys were staring at her but were just too intimidated by her love for books to approach her.

Lily Evans made up the last of the group of six girls. She sat next to Jessica and practically started purring when she felt the velvet of the seats. “Wow, this compartment is definitely worth all the times I blew you guys off to study.”� There was a teasing note in her voice which the others took notice of.

“Yes, yes.”� Cordy waved her hand around, one in which there was the joint; she had taken it from Lacy. “We are all more than proud that you are Head Girl. It only means that this year you can have more fun with us.”�

Yeah, Lily.”� Lacy said, grinning. “We missed you! You always seemed to be buried in a book.”�

“Look who’s talking!”� Jessica snorted. Lacy blushed and then laughed, shrugging. Jessica scrunched her nose up when Cordy again offered the joint to her. “I don’t think so. I don’t want my brain to be dead this year. I’m Quidditch Captain, you know?”�

“No! Really?”� Cece took the joint from her sister's hand. “You’ve only told us every day since the end of last term.”�

Jessica scowled and instead pulled out a pack of cigarettes. 

"And that's _much_ healthier for you, oh Great Quidditch Captain," Cece spat sarcastically. Jessica raised the middle finger of her left hand in reply. 

Lily laughed and fished around in her purse, pulling out a lighter. She took the offered cigarette from Jessica and lit first Jessica's, then her own. She threw the lighter to Lacy, who had produced her own cigarette.

Lily exhaled, smoke coming out of her mouth. She brought the cigarette to her lips again and then smiled at her friends. “I think I’m looking forward to this year. Being Head Girl will definitely have advantages when we feel like going out.”�

Aimee was nodding. “Who’s Head Boy, by the way?”�

“Dylan Daniels,”� Lily replied. There was a moment of silence in the compartment before the six friends burst out laughing. Dylan Daniels was a Ravenclaw and the smartest guy at Hogwarts. Unfortunately Dylan had absolutely no backbone. He was often pushed around by anyone and everyone, and rarely ever left his group of friends which was why he wasn’t in the Head compartment.

“Dylan?”� Aimee giggled. “Well… if we thought we’d have problems getting to Skylar’s, we were wrong!”�

Skylar’s was a popular dance club in Hogsmeade, the village close to Hogwarts. The girls had been going to Skylar’s ever since they had been in their fourth year (it took the others till fifth year to convince Lacy to go), when witches and wizards started being killed off by Voldemort. _Voldemort_. He was the reason why most of the students at Hogwarts were driven to smoking joints, getting high or drunk and partying all night. It was a release for them. They shouldn’t have to deal with reality… they were still concerned on getting through school.

“We’ll have to be more careful this year though,”� Jessica said. She threw her cigarette out the window and lit another one. “With both Lily and me having more responsibilities we can’t risk getting caught and into trouble.”�

“Don’t worry,”� Cece replied. “We’ve never been caught before.”�

“Technically, we’ve never had James Potter as a professor before,”� Lacy muttered, her voice low and quiet. Still, the others all stopped talking to stare at Lacy.

“What?”� Lacy asked.

“James Potter?”� Cece dropped the joint, which Jessica promptly picked back up and handed to her.

“ _James Potter_?!”� Cordy asked, her mouth open.

Aimee frowned. “James Potter? Why does he sound familiar?”�

“Familiar?”� Jessica shrieked. “He's only one of the greatest Quidditch players Hogwarts has ever seen! He played Seeker _and_ Chaser. Of course, not at the same time, but he was extremely talented… not to mention he made Quidditch Captain in his _fifth year_. He’s _amazing_.”�

“He’s _gorgeous_ , you mean!”� Cordy squealed. “Him and Sirius Black. Whoo. They were just… gorgeous.”�

“I rather fancied Remus Lupin,”� Cece said. She giggled. “He tutored me in Ancient Runes.”�

“But, that’s your best subject,”� Lacy said.

Cece wiggled her eyebrows. “He never knew that.”�

The others laughed. Aimee frowned, thinking. “Wasn’t he part of that whole group? What were they called?”�

“The Marauders,”� Cece and Cordy said together. They both had dreamy expressions on their faces.

Lily laughed. “Honestly… are Lacy, Aimee and I the only sane ones in this compartment?”�

“Oh come on, Lily!”� Cece poked Lily’s stomach. “Tell me you never thought he was cute.”�

“I never said he wasn’t!”� Lily protested. “In fact I can admit that he was incredibly handsome, but I also remember how fast he sped through girls. And it’s not like he ever talked to any of us!”�

Jessica looked like she was about to say something when Lily cut her off. “Except for you Jess, because you were the reserve Chaser… but aside from you I don’t think he or any of his friends talked to any of us,”� Lily rolled her eyes at Cece who was opening her mouth, “ _aside_ from tutoring.”�

Cordy lit another joint and then sighed. “Oh please, Lily. Shut up.”�

Everyone laughed until Aimee pulled out wine coolers. “Anyone?”�

Lily grabbed for the black raspberry before Jessica could get to it. She winked and then took a gulp. “So, Cordy… how are things with um… Matt?”�

Cece began to laugh uncontrollably, breaking only when Cordy kicked her in the leg before she was laughing again.

“We broke up,”� Cordy said simply. She took a swig of her wine cooler and passed the joint around. Lacy took a hit and then passed it to Lily.

“Why?”� Aimee asked.

Cece almost choked on her wine cooler. She wiped her mouth and then answered. “He was complete crap in bed.”�

“ _Cece_!”� Cordy hissed.

“It had to be said, sister dear.”�

Cordy sighed and looked at the others who were staring at her and waiting for details. “He was complete crap in bed, all right?”�

“Really?”� Lily asked.

“He didn’t look it,”� Lacy stated. Cece went into another fit of giggles.

“It lasted two minutes before he was done,”� Cordy said. “He completely thought he was wonderful of course… but compared to Derrick-”� She broke off.

“Wait, wait!”� Lily cried. She was feeling the effects of the wine cooler and the joint, just a _little_ bit. “Who’s Derrick?”�

“His older brother,”� Cordy mumbled, her cheeks turning a shade of pink.

“ _That_ Derrick?!?”� Lily shrieked. She, along with Jessica and Lacy, joined Cece in her laughter.

“When was this?”� Jessica asked. “Before or after Matt?”�

“Both,”� Cordy said.

“Oh-kay,”� Aimee looked around the compartment of girls. “Someone want to remind me who Derrick is again?”�

“Derrick was her first,”� Lily explained. Aimee hadn’t been close friends with the group when that had happened. Aimee nodded and then turned back to Cordy. “So he wasn’t upset that you slept with his brother?”�

Cordy shrugged. “I honestly think he was just happy that he was getting shagged.”�

Again the girls broke into fits of laughter.

“Speaking of firsts,”� Jessica said, a small smile on her lips. Lacy tried to hide her face, she knew what was coming. Jessica grinned and then nudged her. “Well?”�

“It was with Dan,”� Lacy said softly. She squirmed in her seat. “Dan Weasley.”�

“Relax, Lacy! You know all of our ‘first’ stories,”� Cece said. She smirked and glanced at Lily. “Especially the kinky ones.”�

Lily groaned. “Oh come on! You promised never to bring that up!”�

“Wait, kinky?”� Jessica asked. She glared at Lily. “You never told me anything about it being kinky!”�

“You were at Quidditch practice when I told the others. Besides, it wasn’t even kinky,”� Lily protested.

“Oh please, Lily!”� Aimee said. “Being blindfolded by Kevin Johnson is _incredibly_ kinky.”�

Lily gasped in mock horror. “Aimee!”�

“What?”� Aimee blushed. “You know I thought he was smashing!”�

Lily giggled and took another swig of her wine cooler. “Okay, so maybe it was a _little_ bit kinky.”�

“There’s the Lily we all know and love,”� Cordy cheered. She leaned forward. “But honestly… did it heighten the rest of your senses?”�

Lily squinted, thinking back. After a moment she nodded. “Definitely. You never know what’s about to happen… so…”� Desperate to get the attention off of her, Lily turned back to look at Lacy. “Now tell us all about Weasley.”�

Lacy’s eyes widened when everyone else turned their attention to her. After only two questions, she was completely red in the face, but she wouldn’t want to be anywhere else than with her friends.

\---

For the six friends the train ride sped by. Lily barely had time to meet Dylan in his compartment, greet the Prefects, set out some rules and hand out passwords before they had arrived at Hogwarts. She and the others hurriedly dressed in their robes, forgoing the uniforms underneath. They wouldn’t have time to change into those. With a few spells the girls had cleaned the compartment out to leave no trace of what they had been doing.

As they walked off of the train they were greeted by many other students, and fought to answer questions with answers that would make sense. That was the downside of getting high and drinking; you generally weren’t as bright as you normally would be otherwise.

Luckily, the fresh air and the ride to the castle seemed to clear them up a bit, although they still laughed loudly at almost nothing. No one else, though, seemed to notice much for the six girls weren’t the only ones to be drinking on the train ride.

Lily walked through the doors of the Entrance Hall and headed towards the Great Hall, arm in arm with Aimee and Cece. They were laughing joyously, ignoring the looks of desire from guys watching them, and the look of disapproval McGonagall shot them when they passed her for not being in complete uniform. Lily, honestly, could not care. All she did care about was that she had the munchies, and she had them bad.

Aimee waved as they entered the Great Hall and headed off to the Ravenclaw table. Most times she sat at the Gryffindor table with the others, but she made it a point to sit at the Ravenclaw one for the sorting feast, to show support for her house.

Lily let Cece drag her to a seat and sit her down. They both laughed when Cordy sat down across from them and then tilted backwards. Lacy and Jessica immediately pushed her upright, and sat across from Lily and Cece, Cordy in between them.

Cordy glanced at the doors to the Great Hall and frowned. “Where are those first years? I’m hungry!”�

“I know, me too,”� Lily said. She looked around the Hall, smiling at the familiarity. She loved Hogwarts. She would be sad to leave it at the end of the year. Her gaze flickered to the Head table where the professors sat. Her gaze flicked over Professor Vector talking with Professor Sprout, the Head of Hufflepuff. Lily’s favorite teacher, Professor Flitwick, and Head of Ravenclaw, was sitting near an empty chair which was reserved for Professor McGonagall.

And then, there was Dumbledore. There was the usual sparkle in his eye and his warm smile. This time, he wasn’t directing it at the students. He was talking animatedly with one of the most handsome men Lily had ever seen in her entire life. She couldn’t help but quietly gasp. She immediately knew who it was, not because he was new, but because she’d never forget what he looked like. She’d never had a _crush_ on James Potter, per se… she’d always thought he was good looking but she’d only been thirteen when she was really interested in boys and that was the year that James was a seventh year, and Head Boy. He and his friends never dated girls below fourth year, so Lily had never even been on his radar. Plus, Lily had been slightly annoyed by him and the rest of the Marauders when they’d thrown dung bombs in all of the Gryffindor girls’ rooms.

Lily broke her gaze away from James when the doors to the Great Hall were thrown open and McGonagall lead the first years down the tables. A first year boy with bright red hair, who Lily had helped find a compartment, shot her a terrified look when he saw her. She touched his shoulder comfortingly when he passed and he grinned back at her.

When Lily looked up again, she found James Potter staring straight at her. She tilted her head, but didn’t break away her gaze. He was taller than he had been when he’d left Hogwarts, and was more… buff. She’d remembered Cece and Cordy talking once about his muscles when they’d visited Jessica at Quidditch practice, only to see James Potter throw his shirt off. She briefly wondered what it would feel like to see for herself.

That’s when Lily almost started laughing. He was her _professor_ for crying out loud! Still… Lily kept her gaze locked on his as McGonagall began to call out names. She noted that his hair was still as messy, but it looked as good as it ever did. A wolfish smile over came his face before James Potter looked away to continue talking to Dumbledore.

Lily tried to focus on the sorting ceremony currently going on, and push James Potter out of her mind. Still, she found it hard when she could feel his gaze on her. And why? Why did he even look at her anyway? It started to become annoying to Lily and she became a little paranoid. What? Was there something on her face? Her clothes? She briefly looked down at her top. She was clean. Then what was he staring at?

“Weasley, William,”� McGonagall called. Lily watched the red haired boy slowly walk up to the stool. His gaze swept over the crowd and Lily gave him a thumbs up. After that, he seemed to melt on the stool. Again, she felt James' eyes on her. She didn’t know why she was being so nice to the boy… perhaps it was because he reminded her of herself her first year. Alone, no compartment to sit in… and then Cece and Cordy had come along. Smiling, Lily waited for the sorting hat to decide where little William Weasley would be going. A second later she found out.

“GRYFFINDOR!”�

Lily stood up and cheered for William as he raced to the Gryffindor table. He shocked her briefly when he hugged her before he seemed to realize what he was doing and jumped away.

“I’m Lily Evans,”� Lily said, smiling.

“I’m Bill,”� he said shyly.

“Well, Bill… I think there a few of your other first years who want to greet you,”� Lily pushed him in the direction of two other first year boys. Bill hesitantly joined them before they were scooting over so he could sit in between them. Lily kicked Jessica under the table when Jessica rolled her eyes at Lily’s gesture.

Lily looked back up at the head table. He was doing it again! What was the matter with him? Lily shook it off and almost attacked her food when it finally appeared. She laughed with her friends the rest of the night, and completely forgot all about James Potter as she lead the Gryffindors up into the Gryffindor common room. She mumbled the password, 'gillyweed,' and waved the girls and boys into their proper dormitories. As Head Girl, Lily would have her own common room with Dylan, along with her own bedroom and bathroom, but she’d rather stay with her friends. Most likely she wouldn’t even use the Head rooms unless she and the others were too drunk or high to move back to the Gryffindor tower. And she knew Dylan would never use it.

Lily let Lacy drag her up the stairs before she collapsed on her bed, not bothering to even remove her shoes or change her clothes.

\---

Hogwarts was exactly as James had remembered it was. He’d apparated into Hogsmeade a few days before the start of term to settle into his rooms and office. It had been nice to be back, and he felt a sort of satisfaction to walk past McGonagall and joyfully call out, “Morning Minnie!”�

He hadn’t been at all nervous about the upcoming term; in fact, for a new teacher, he was incredibly calm. But that was James Potter. He practically never let people see him aggravated. When he’d heard that the students had finally arrived, he smoothly made his way to the Great Hall, hands in his pockets, and took a seat next to Dumbledore.

They’d been talking briefly about when James was going to settle down. He secretly hoped never. After Hogwarts, he was still a lady charmer, and had desperately wished that Dumbledore would hire a beautiful, young professor (in any subject) just so he would have some form of entertainment. Unfortunately, that wasn’t to be so. He was the only new teacher that year.

He’d watched as all of the students filed into the Great Hall and he smiled at those he recognized. Truthfully, there weren’t many. Most of the seventh years had been too young for him to know back when he was at Hogwarts. Still… his gaze scanned the crowd while he talked to Dumbledore. He spotted a girl, Jessica, who used to be a reserve on the Gryffindor Quidditch team when he was on it. Other than that, he didn’t think he remembered any of the seventh year Gryffindors. His gaze fell back to Jessica and the girls around her when he felt his breath almost stop.

Close to Jessica was someone James was sure he had never seen before in his entire life. She was too gorgeous to have gone to Hogwarts while he was there. Surely he would have remembered her? He watched her cross the Hall. She wasn’t wearing the uniform like the others. She, instead, was wearing a miniskirt that almost didn’t even qualify as a skirt and a tight peasant top shirt. As she went to sit down her skirt rode slightly up and the animal instinct within James, as well as the womanizer that he was, begged him to carry her off somewhere, anywhere. The _beautiful_ girl swung her head to laugh at something her friend, a little further from her, had said.

The doors opened to admit the first years, and still James didn’t look away. He saw his girl comfort a terrified first year who would have looked like he’d been related to her had his hair not been _so_ bright.

Then, she looked up, and met his eyes. James had been caught staring. That almost never happened. He casually relaxed in his chair, playing it off. His eyes stayed locked on hers, and after a few minutes he found it interesting she hadn’t looked away. He fought the urge to cock a brow. Instead he smiled wolfishly and turned to face Dumbledore. He’d occasionally look at her, confidant that she would know it. And, he was slightly pleased to see her squirming in her seat and looking down at her clothes.

He wanted to see her with that robe off and in just the miniskirt. He got half of his wish, when William Weasley joined the Gryffindors and his girl stood up to cheer him, her robe flying back and exposing her body in just the Muggle clothes. When the first year hugged her, she slightly bent down exposing a little bit of cleavage.

Damn. James cursed under his breath, not noticing the gaze Dumbledore sent his way. Teaching was going to be a lot harder than he thought. Unless… James looked back towards the girl. No, he was her PROFESSOR!

James leaned back into his seat as the food appeared and stared at Dumbledore. “So… who’s the new Head Girl and Boy?”�

Dumbledore grinned, as if knowing exactly what James was thinking (he always seemed to know _everything else,_ James figured ‘Why not?’). He pointed towards the Ravenclaw table. “Dylan Daniels and,”� Dumbledore pointed towards the Gryffindor table, exactly at his girl, “Lily Evans.”�

_Lily Evans._ James gritted his teeth. He was going to have to visit Sirius pretty soon. He took a sip of the wine that appeared in his goblet and then said, “Professor… you don’t think I could visit Sirius this weekend, do you?”�

Dumbledore smiled. “Of course. Special occasion?”� His eyes twinkled.

James looked at Lily as if considering something. “Just a little Marauder get together.”�

Dumbledore followed his gaze, chuckled and ate a piece of meat. “Try the pork, James. It’s wonderful.”�

James did just that, no longer watching Lily Evans until she began to leave the Great Hall. He bid goodnight to the other professors before he made his way to his own office. He needed to check when he was going to have seventh year Gryffindors.

\---

****


	2. Walk This Way

**Author's Note:**

Hello my lovelies! :) I'm sorry that this wasn't out sooner. I thought for sure it would be, but then I got so bogged down by finals that I barely had time to get online for anything other than studying. I'm not happy with this part. It's never been one of my favorites, and since all my favorite shows are on hiatus (damn them! ;) ) I've been bored enough to nitpick this chapter. Fortunately (for me), I ended with such a headache from studying that I finally gave up on it... which means that unfortunately (for you), this part is rather bad. Sorry about that! It's much better grammar wise and such thanks to my beta, Kate... who's like this smart version of me. _Way_ smart version of me, actually. So - thanks Kate! You're a life saver... but you already know that! ;)

As replying to you guys, I'm figuring out how to do that still. Gah. I'm so computer and technologically dumb it isn't even funny. 

Hopefully, Chapter 3 will be up by Saturday. I've got to send it off to Kate, and I'm sure she's busy. Plus, I have to go Christmas shopping tomorrow as well as visit with my sister. So, I'll do all I can to update that much faster. Thanks guys. :) I LOVE ALL OF YOU!

**_Chapter 2: Walk This Way_ **

_School girl sleezy with a classy kinda sassy_  
 _Little skirt hangin' way up her knee_  
 _There were three young ladies in a school gym locker_  
 _And I find they were lookin' at me_  
-"Walk This Way" by Aerosmith

At exactly seven the next morning, Cece woke up and shouted, "COME ON GUYS! FIRST DAY! UP AND AT 'EM!"

Cordy threw a pillow at her sister, not even bothering to see if it hit her, while Lily, pulling her blankets up to her chin, grinned and snuggled deeper into her bed. Jessica snored and rolled over, throwing one of her arms over her face, and Lacy, yawning and making her way towards the showers, seemed to be the only one listening to Cece. 

"Good Lacy!" Cece praised. She waited, hands on her hips, for the others to show signs of getting up. When they didn't, she approached the bottom of her sister's bed and yanked on the covers. Cordy shrieked and tried to pull them back, but realized, while moaning something along the lines of “I sometimes hate you Cece”�, that it was useless. 

Cece smiled. "Well as long as you're up and you've showered, I don't mind." She looked back around the room towards Jessica's bed. Pointing her wand at it, she called, " _Accio blankets_."

"Bloody hell!" Jessica yelled, immediately waking up. "What time is it?"

"Seven," Cece answered.

Jessica fell back onto the bed, turned over with her face in her pillow. She screamed loudly, and then got out of bed. "One of these days Cece, I'm going to wake you up and you're going to hate it."

"Yeah, yeah," Cece rolled her eyes. They were like this every morning since first year when Cece had been the first one up. Lacy always listened, while Lily _used_ to before she realized that she actually liked sleeping in. Cece blamed it all on Cordy, who, if she had the choice, would sleep in until twelve everyday.

Cece stared at Lily's bed before walking over to it and prodding Lily. "Lily, come on. Wake up." Lily swatted at Cece, smacking her on the arm. Cece jumped back and frowned. She took a step closer and tried again. This time, Lily hit her face.

Nearby, Cordy was laughing. "Serves you right. Just let her sleep in."

"She's _Head Girl_ , Cordy. You know Lily, she'll want to get to breakfast early today. Besides, I still have a slight case of the munchies."

"No, you don't." Jessica came into the room, one hand on her hip and the other holding her toothbrush. "You're just hungry."

"The point is that Lily needs to wake up," Cece said. "And I think I have just the way to do it."

"And what's that?" Cordy asked. 

Cece smirked and pointed her wand at Lily. " _Accio Lily_!" she cried.

"Uh oh." Lacy said, coming to watch.

Lily flew out of her bed. Her eyes instantly opened and she saw Cece duck as she flew towards her. Lily barely had time to scream before she crashed into Cordy's bed, straight across from her own. She clutched her abdomen and slowly rolled off the bed and hit the floor. "Ow."

"Oh hell!" Cece jumped up and ran towards Lily. "I'm sorry Lily! Really, I didn't actually know that you would fly towards me. I just thought it would make you sit up. Really! Are you okay? Do you want me to take you down to the hospital wing? Do you need anything? Are you okay?"

"I felt like I just got hit by a brick wall," Lily groaned. "But aside from that, I'm just peachy." She rubbed her abdomen again and let Cece help her up. "Next time just don't wake me up."

Cece flinched. "I really am sor-"

Lily waved away Cece’s apology before she had the chance to finish. "It's okay. I should've gotten up anyways." She slowly moved towards the showers briefly answering Jessica, Lacy and Cordy when they asked if she was okay.

Cece flopped down onto the bed and groaned. Cordy threw a towel at her and smiled. "Come on sis, it's our first day. Up and at 'em." Cece shot her a glare but Cordy simply turned and walked back into the bathroom.

Each of the dorms in the Gryffindor tower had a room attached to it with showers, toilets, and mirrors, one for each person in the dorm. A half an hour later, all five of the girls were done with their showers and were dressing and getting their things together. Every morning, one of them would play a song on Lacy's radio - magical, not muggle, although it did play muggle music from time to time. On this morning, a new muggle song that Lily had heard a few times over the summer was playing. She grinned and performed drying and straightening spells on her hair as the music filled the room.

Lily turned, and frowned at her hair in the mirror. She cast a curling charm on it instead. Lily shook her head, curls flying, and grinned, liking the look of the curls. She'd had straight hair for as long as she could remember. Curly was a new look, and she liked it. 

Lily left the bathroom, crossed the room to her dresser, and frowned. _Where was her skirt?_ "Jess?" she called. 

Jessica turned from getting dressed. "Yeah?"

Lily pushed through her dresser again. "Do you have my dark maroon pleated skirt? You know… the one that goes with our tie?" Jessica turned back around and threw something at Lily. Lily smiled. "Thanks!"

Cordy passed by Lily and looked under her bed. "Have you seen those new black shoes I was planning on wearing?"

"You mean mine?" Lily asked sarcastically. Cordy grinned and nodded. Lily kicked out a pair of shoes from behind her trunk. "There."

"Thanks!" Cordy walked away, strapping the shoes on. 

Jessica was sitting on her bed, flipping through the latest edition of a Quidditch magazine, dressed and ready to go. She was just waiting for the others to finish primping. 

Lacy grabbed her bag and joined Jessica by her bed. They shared an annoyed look as Lily, Cece, and Cordy ran around the room, occasionally bumping into each other as they reached for their shirts or ties or bags. Wrinkling her nose, Lacy leaned against Jessica's bedpost and pulled out a book out from her bag.

Lily slipped her shoes on and then glanced around. Cece and Cordy were almost ready. 

"Okay… we're ready," Cece finally announced a few minutes later. She turned the radio off, grabbed her bag, and started out the door. Lacy followed suit, Jessica and Lily close behind. Cordy closed the door as she left, calling for the others to wait up.

\---

Like always, Professor McGonagall passed out the schedules as soon as all of the Gryffindors were sitting at their respectable table, eating breakfast. Lily saw Aimee get hers from Professor Flitwick (the Head of Ravenclaw House) and waved for her to join them at the Gryffindor table. Aimee laughed with a few girls sitting around her, before hurrying over to the Gryffindor table. She sat down next to Lily and began grabbing food and putting it on her plate.

"Let me see your schedule!" Cece grabbed Aimee's schedule to compare it with hers. "Well, we've got Defense Against the Dark Arts together, Divination, Transfiguration and," Cece looked closer at her schedule and then Aimee's. " _Finally_! They've switched it so that we've got Potions together as well."

"That leaves Herbology and Charms with the Hufflepuffs," Jessica read, "and Care of Magical Creatures with the Slytherins."

"Sorry Aimee," Lacy said. "You're stuck with them for two classes."

"Don't feel sorry for me," Aimee nodded towards the Hufflepuff table where it appeared they had noticed their schedules as well and were not at all happy about it. "Feel sorry for them. They have _four_ classes with the Slytherins."

Lily and Jessica shuddered at the thought. Aimee took a sip of orange juice. "What do we have today?"

Jessica frowned. "We've got Double Potions at nine, then lunch… um then Defense Against the Dark Arts and Divination."

"That's not so bad," Lacy said. When the others looked at her she laughed. "Guys… we no longer have Potions with the Slytherins. I think any day without them is an excellent one."

"Well said," Jessica nodded.

"Plus," Lacy continued, "we have Defense Against the Dark Arts today which means we'll have eye candy. So, it's _definitely_ not too bad."

Cece leaned against Lacy. "I don't think I can wait until after lunch."

"Well, you can look at him now," Jessica pointed out. "He _is_ eating breakfast."

Immediately, both Cece and Cordy had turned to look at James eating at the head table. They turned back and giggled. Jessica rolled her eyes and grabbed a muffin.

"What's up with him?" Aimee asked, nodding towards James.

"What do you mean?" Lacy asked.

Aimee shrugged. "Just… yesterday he kept staring at Lily all throughout the feast." She looked at Lily. "I thought you said that you've never talked to him before."

"I haven't," Lily insisted when the other four looked at her curiously. "He just kept staring at me, that's all."

"Oh," Cece exchanged a knowing look with Cordy.

"That's _all_ ," Cordy said.

Lily rolled her eyes. "He's a professor."

"So?" Jessica said.

 

"So! He's a professor!" Lily stated again.  
"Lily's going to get shagged. Lily's going to get shagged. _Lily's going to get shagged_!" Cordy and Cece sang, laughing hysterically, especially when Lily threw a roll at them.

"Miss Evans."

Lily’s body suddenly tensed, before slowly turning and smiling innocently at Professor McGonagall. "Good Morning, Professor McGonagall."

Professor McGonagall raised an eyebrow as she held out a piece of paper, which Lily took. "That is the schedule for the Prefect's meetings and the topics that are to be discussed at the first Prefect meeting that will occur in three days. I've already given Daniels the schedule and I suggest you meet after classes today to go over everything."

Lily nodded, her eyes glued to the paper. She could hear Cece and Cordy snickering behind her.

"Good day, Miss Evans," Professor McGonagall said. She began to walk away before stopping and turning back around. "And Miss Evans, please refrain from throwing food at your peers. As Head Girl you're supposed to be a role model for the younger children."

Lily smiled weakly and nodded. When McGonagall was out of hearing distance, she quickly turned back around to glare at the twins. " _That wasn't funny_!"

Cece waved her hands in front of her face. "No," she broke into laughter, "it was bloody hilarious."

Lily's head dropped into her hands. "Bloody hell! I think I need a cigarette."

"Oh, but Lily… you're 'supposed to be a role model,'" Cordy replied, teasing the redhead next to her.

"Shut up, Cordy!" Lily snapped. She grabbed a piece of bacon and took a bite.

"He's looking at you again," Aimee said. Immediately, Cordy and Cece spun around to see if James was indeed looking. Lily pretended she hadn't even heard Aimee.

"You know Lily," Lacy began, "my cousin's the same age as we are and she's dating someone who's twenty-two."

"Brilliant for her!" Lily said. "Is he her professor?"

"No," Lacy said.

"Well there you go," Lily stated matter-of-factly. "And, by the way, you are all jumping to a bunch of conclusions. Maybe he was looking at me because I am funny looking or something. Who knows."

"Or maybe you're just in denial," Lacy teased.

"Is there a rule that says you can't date a professor?" Jessica asked.

"No," Lily said. "But it's just… wrong. It'd be weird and uncomfortable."

"Hmm…" Lacy bit her toast. "Is there a rule that says you can't date two professors at the same time?"

"Why?" Cece asked.

"Well, now that Lily has the attention of James, I want to get to Professor Flitwick before she does," Lacy said simply.

Jessica, Cece, Aimee, Cordy and even Lacy, began to laugh uproariously. Out of the corner of her eye, Lily saw Bill Weasley approaching with his friends. She smiled and called, "Bill!"

Bill grinned at Lily and said a quick few words to his friends, who were looking at Bill (and Lily) in awe, before joining Lily. "G'morning Lily."

"Good morning, Bill." Lily looked at her friends who had stopped laughing, but were all grinning like idiots. "Girls, this is Bill Weasley. Bill, these are my _friends_ ; Jessica, Cece, Cordy and Lacy - all Gryffindors. And Aimee who's a seventh-year Ravenclaw."

"Hi," Bill said shyly.

"Lacy," Lily continued, "actually knows your uncle, I believe. Dan?"

Lacy blushed a deep red as Bill grinned at her. "Uncle Dan? You know him?"

"She and Dan are actually very intimate friends," Lily said, smiling at Bill who clearly thought what any other eleven year old would think when the word 'intimate' was used concerning boys and girls; his uncle and Lacy were obviously best friends or extremely close ones.

"Isn't he the coolest?" Bill asked enthusiastically. "I was so upset that he graduated last year… it would have been awesome to have him around. Don't you think?"

Lacy forced herself to smile at Bill, despite being red in the face. "Yes." The others were struggling to hold in their laughter.

"Well, I'm going to eat breakfast. Bye Lily!”� He then turned to Lacy and continued, “Bye Lacy, I'll tell Uncle Dan you said hi when I write him okay?" Bill walked happily away from the girls and towards his friends. They heard one of them ask, "Blimey… how do you know _her_?"

Lily was the first to lose her composure. She laughed loudly, soon joined in by the others, causing some of the other tables to look around at them. Aimee was clutching her sides. "That was _perfect_ , Lily."

Jessica wiped away a tear and tried to calm her laughter. "He'll tell 'Uncle Dan you said hi!'"

Cordy and Cece were hiding their faces. You couldn't hear their laughter, but you could see their shoulders shaking.

Lacy groaned, leaning against Jessica. "Fine, Lily, you win. I promise never to encourage you to shag your professor."

"Thank you." Lily said, smiling. She picked up her goblet of orange juice and took a large gulp.

From behind her Lily heard a deep voice ask, "Which professor?"

Aimee froze, as did Lily. Cece and Cordy slowly pulled their hands away from their faces. Lacy sat up and Jessica straightened. Lily, eyes wide in shock, struggled to swallow the juice in her mouth, before turning around to look the smirking James Potter in the eye. She threw a panicked look in Aimee's direction before smiling at him. "Good morning."

"Good morning," James grinned. Lily's eyes narrowed. She definitely heard amusement in his voice. He again asked, "Which professor?"

Lily waited for one of the other girls to answer his question, or throw him off by asking him something else. Unfortunately, she realized that they weren't bound to come to her rescue any time soon; James had asked _her_.

"Excuse me?" Lily asked. _Good, just play innocent_.

"Which professor were you being encouraged to," James looked at Lacy, "I believe 'shag' was what you said?"

Today was just not going well at all for Lacy. For the second time in the past half an hour, her face reddened to the considerable color of a tomato.

Lily's jaw dropped. _Could he even ask those questions?! Why can’t he just let the fucking subject drop!?_ James turned his gaze back on her, waiting for her answer.

"Er… um… uh, well…," Lily looked at Aimee, her eyes searching for an answer. She turned back to James and then said, "I think that you must have heard wrong." As an afterthought, Lily quickly added, "Sir."

"Really?" James' eyes twinkled. "What was it that was said, then?"

_Damn him!_ Lily searched her mind for any word that happened to rhyme with 'shag'. _Rag_ … Lily flinched. _Definitely not. Hag? Jag? Prag? No, that wasn't even a word. Lag… well that wouldn't make much sense._ Lily desperately wanted a cigarette. James raised an eyebrow and Lily realized that she was taking awhile to answer, she needed to say something soon… suddenly, she said the first thing that came to mind. "She said 'zag.'" _Oh yes, much better than 'lag!'_

"What?" Aimee and James both asked. Aimee quickly shut up when Lily elbowed her.

"Yes," Lily said quickly. "It's this new… um, word. You know, it actually means to, you know… er… it means to patronize someone. So when Lacy said 'I promise to never encourage you to _zag_ your professor'… she really meant, 'I promise to never encourage you to patronize your professor.'"

Next to her, Aimee's mouth was wide open, and she was staring at Lily as if she had never seen her before.

James smiled. " _Ah_ … I see."

Lily really, _really_ needed a cigarette. _And_ , she needed James Potter to drop the subject and leave as soon as possible. He was really starting to unnerve her. Unfortunately for Lily, it didn't seem like he was about to do that anytime soon. In fact, he sat next to Lily, across from Jessica. She stared at him simply dumbfounded. _What kind of professor was he?!_

"Jessica, right?" James asked, turning his attention to Jessica. She nodded in reply. He smiled. "I remember you from when I played Quidditch! You were a reserve Chaser, right?"

"Yeah."

"Do you still play then?" James asked.

Jessica seemed to relax. "Of course! I'm the Quidditch Captain this year, actually."

"Really?" James asked. "How has the team been doing since I left? Did we win the cup?"

Jessica leaned forward, excited. "Well, fourth year we did okay. Our seeker ended up getting injured so frequently that we had to find a replacement who wasn't nearly as good. Fifth year though, we won it. Last year the Ravenclaws won," Jessica shot a glare at Aimee who smiled brightly, "but we're definitely going to win this year," she finished, not taking her eyes off Aimee.

"Good," James said. "What sort of plays are you using?" Jessica launched into all the kinds of Quidditch plays they had been using for the past three years.

Lily couldn't believe it. Not five minutes ago, he was practically interrogating her and now he and Jessica were going to talk Quidditch? She looked around the table to see Cece and Cordy practically hanging on to his every word, Lacy still looking like she was about to die of embarrassment and Aimee looked like she couldn't decide whether to laugh or straight out ask James if he was really their Defense Against the Dark Arts professor.

Lily caught Aimee's eyes and rolled her own in the direction of Jessica, Cece and Cordy. Aimee grinned and mouthed, "Cigarette break?"

" _Definitely_!" Lily replied.

Aimee tore up her napkin and rolled it up. She caught Lacy's eye and motioned with the napkin. "Cigarette?" she mouthed. Lacy nodded desperately. Now, all they had to do was wait for the right time…

The right time suddenly appeared about five minutes later. Quidditch was still the topic of discussion, and Lily was waiting for a break. Why did it suddenly seem she was a whole lot closer to James? He was gesturing with his hands about plays or something (Lily really wasn't paying attention), when he shifted and his thigh was suddenly touching hers. For a moment she almost closed her eyes and sighed blissfully before she remembered where she was, who she was and who she was sitting next to. _Bloody hell_!

Lily practically jumped up, causing Jessica, Cece, Cordy and James to look up at her. Aimee and Lacy were slowly standing, aching to get away from the table.

"Lacy forgot one of her books so we're going to go and get it with her," Lily explained.

"Oh?" Jessica asked. She frowned. "You usually never forget your books Lacy. Which one was it?"

" _Unfogging the Future_."

" _Standard Book of Spells_."

Lacy looked between Lily and Aimee who had both answered. Jeez, the day was going horribly. She cleared her throat. "I forgot both of them actually." No one seemed to believe them.

"So, we'll just go get those," Lily said. "Uh… bye _Professor_ Potter." Lily made to put emphasize on the 'Professor', in case the other three - well technically two since Jessica was all about the Quidditch shop talk - forgot that James wasn't in their year. He was, in fact, quite untouchable to any of them.

"Yes, good bye Professor Potter." Aimee said, pulling Lacy and Lily away from the table.

"I'll see you girls in class later." James said. And, like nothing had happened he turned back to talk with Jessica.

\---

"That was horrible!" Lacy complained. She took a long drag of the cigarette and exhaled. "I mean, was it just me or did any of you wish for a big hole to swallow you up?"

"I didn't know what to say!" Lily said. She flicked her cigarette and then brought it back up to her mouth. "I mean, what the bloody hell was he doing anyway? Asking all of those questions and eavesdropping?"

"We weren't exactly quiet," Aimee said. "Anyone would have heard us if they were walking by."

Lily and Lacy glared at her. "We are bashing James here, jump on the bandwagon."

"Yeah, who's side are you on anyways?" Lacy said.

Aimee held up her hands in surrender, "Right… fine. He's a snoop!"

"Better," Lily said. She leaned back. The three of them had run towards a tree that was nearby the lake. She saw a tentacle from the giant squid break the water’s surface before quickly going back under. She shook her head. "I'm thinking we need to go to Skylar's this weekend. What do you think?"

"I could go for that," Aimee said.

Lacy leaned back on one hand, crossed her legs and then pulled the cigarette away with her free hand. "Whatever you guys want to do."

"I do think that Jessica was right though. We're going to have to be more careful this year. We can't go back to our dorms drunk as skunks," Aimee stated.

"We've got the Head rooms. You know how Dylan doesn't like to stray from his friends," Lily shrugged. "We can always use that common room and my room. No one else will be able to get in."

"Good."

In the distance the three girls heard a bell ring. They quickly put out their cigarettes and set out for the Potions room.

\---

"What was up with you guys this morning?" Jessica asked once the girls were set up in Potions. There were three vertical rows of tables in the Potions classroom, and in each row there were six tables, two facing each other. There were four to a table, two to a cauldron. Because there were fewer students than tables, the six girls were able to sit alone in the back.

"What do you mean?" Lily asked.

Jessica gave her a look that clearly said 'don't-play-stupid'. "You know what I mean! You three made up a horrible excuse and then just ran off."

"We needed a cigarette break," Lily stated. "And in case you hadn't noticed, it was incredibly uncomfortable!"

"Well, for you," Cece said. When Lily, Lacy and Aimee shot her looks of disbelief she sighed. "Okay, so it was uncomfortable for Lacy too."

"Were you even in the same _room_?!" Aimee snapped. "You could have cut the tension in that room with a knife."

"Yeah," Cordy smirked, "the _sexual_ tension."

"Are you insane?" Lily asked in a flat voice.

"Lily, his leg brushed yours and you jumped so high I was surprised you didn't go through the roof," Cordy said.

"Well, that's an over exaggeration if I ever heard one," Lily retorted. "The three of us had been waiting to leave, that's all."

" _Sure_ ," Cece said. "Then why didn't you just say where you were really going instead of lying about getting a book?"

Lily sighed and cut up the rest of the flobberworms. She put them into the cauldron and waited for Lacy to add her part. "We went to smoke a cigarette. We couldn't very well say that in front of a professor. Which you seem to be forgetting that James is, in fact, one."

"Oh, so it's James again is it?" Jessica teased. "Not ' _Professor Potter_ '?"

Lily threw a flobberworm at Jessica.

\---

To say that Lily, and considerably Lacy, was dreading Defense Against the Dark Arts was an understatement. They'd, at first, considered hexing each other to the hospital wing but not only would they get detentions and lose house points, but the others would probably think it was incredibly unlike the two to hex each other (which it was) and ask questions that Lily just didn't want to answer. All in all, they knew they'd have to appear at the class no matter how uncomfortable it was bound to be.

"Okay, I have an idea!" Lacy said. She and Lily were walking as slow as possible to the classroom. Aimee was already there, saving them seats.

"Yes?" Lily asked.

"Let's pretend that everything that happened today and last night, didn't happen. James - _Professor Potter_ \- was never looking at you and he didn't overhear anything. He's just like any other professor except-"

"He's younger and _much_ hotter?" Lily laughed. "Okay. We don't _know_ James-"

"Well, we technically never did." Lacy interrupted.

"-we only know _Professor Potter_. Good idea, Lacy." Lily straightened as they came closer to the classroom. Unlike most of the professors, James, no - _Professor Potter_ greeted his students at the door. Lily wondered if there was any way for her to accidentally kick him.

"Brave… okay, we're Gryffindors… we're brave," Lacy said. She'd never been so embarrassed in front of a professor before in her entire life. The fact that said professor was unbelievably gorgeous just made it ten times worse.

"So is he, Lacy, so is he." Lily wrapped an arm around her friend's shoulders when Lacy shot her a grim look.

\---

James saw Lily and… Lacy was it? They were talking to each other and walking down the hallway. Earlier that morning, he had _innocently_ been walking down the Great Hall towards his classroom when he'd been stopped in his tracks by what he had heard. Who wouldn't have stopped? And, he was more than certain that they had been talking about _him_. The question that was going through James' mind was why had Lily jumped as though she had been burned when their thighs had touched earlier at breakfast? Was she a virgin? It was possible… Head Girl, an excellent student… but James had been Head Boy, an excellent student _and_ Quidditch Captain, and he was far from virginal. Lily, though, seemed like she was a virgin. And fragile at that.

James didn't know why he was so attracted to her. She was gorgeous, yes - in fact she was probably the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen, but she was also now James' student, and in fact a student (despite her body saying otherwise). She was off limits.

_That was it!_

She was off limits - she was out of his reach. _She was a challenge._ That's why she was so attractive to James, because she was untouchable.

But no… that wasn't right.

James greeted another student and looked into the classroom. Anyone of these girls were off limits to him. Each one was untouchable. So why was Lily Evans so special?

He sighed as the very person walked into the classroom. "Hello," he greeted. She seemed to be completely at ease when she replied, "Hello Professor." He nodded to Lacy and then greeted the rest of those entering his class. When the bell rang he shut the door and walked towards the center of the classroom. When his gaze traveled to Lily, sitting towards the front of the room near the window, he nearly hexed himself.

He leaned back upon his desk, not missing some of the swooning girls, and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Good morning, class. For those of you who don't know me I'm James Potter," he grinned when he received some clapping from the Gryffindors. "Of course, it's _Professor_ Potter to you. Now, this year is probably going to be one of the hardest you'll have. You have NEWTS coming up this year, and there are dangers out in the real world that I'm going to have to prepare you for. This class is one of the most important classes you're going to have. I'm going to teach you how to fight a dark wizard. I'm going to teach you how to defend yourself. I'm going to teach you how to stay alive. I'm going to teach you all that I can. Now," James looked around the class room, "who here is ready to learn?"

\---


	3. The Logical Song

**Author's Notes:**

Well, it's still Saturday - yeay! I'm finally posting an update when I promised I would! Kudos, Kate for getting it back to me so fast! You rock - but you know that, don't you? LOL.

Thanks for all of the reviews, guys! I finally figured out how to reply to all of you - I love that feature here! (And I swear I will reply to all of you as soon as I can... I'm so exhausted right now) You guys have probably read this chapter already, so sorry that there's nothing new out just yet. Chapter 4 will be done as soon as Kate finishes editing it, and hopefully that will be new for some of you. :)

**_Chapter 3: The Logical Song_ **

_I say: Now watch what you say_  
 _Or they'll be calling you a radical_  
 _A liberal, oh fanatical, criminal_  
 _Oh won't you sign up your name_  
 _We'd like to feel you're acceptable,_  
-“The Logical Song”� by Supertramp

It was Thursday night. Three days had passed since Lily’s first class with James. She’d stopped referring to him as ‘Professor Potter’ the same day she had started, and her mind kept calling him James, so seeing no harm in that Lily let him be James… at least in her mind. She’d only had two Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons so far, and both times James had been completely professional, so it gave Lily some satisfaction to see that she was right, that James had merely been looking at Lily because she was Head Girl or funny looking or something to that effect.

Lily walked down the silent hallways gazing at some of the portraits that felt so much like home. She wrapped her arms around herself and turned to look at the boy walking silently next to her.

“That went well, don’t you think?”� Lily asked Dylan, trying to make conversation. He looked up and nodded. “Yeah. We’re a pretty good team.”�

Lily smiled and continued to walk Dylan the rest of the way to the Ravenclaw common room. He smiled gratefully at her and waved her goodbye with a cheerful smile on his face. As she turned and made her way back, she passed an empty classroom. This wasn’t unusual, of course, but what was bizarre were the sounds coming from the room. It sounded like a girl, crying and pleading.

Steeling herself, Lily walked into the classroom, arms crossed over her chest. There, in the middle of the room were a few Slytherin boys, some fifth and sixth years. Between them, there was a young girl… Lily recognized her from the Gryrffindor common room. She couldn’t have been older than a second year! Her robes were torn, her blouse ripped and her thigh was bleeding. There was a handprint on her face, as if she had been slapped.

Lily stared in disgust at the boys who were around her. The girl looked at her pleadingly, tears in her eyes and on her face.

“Fifty points from Slytherin,”� Lily, eyes fixed on the boys, said, her voice sharp. “Fifty points from Slytherin for _each_ of you.”�

“That’s two hundred points! You can’t do that!”� One of the sixth year Slytherins yelled. He stood up quickly, causing one of the desks to tip over, and the girl to wince. His three comrades stood up next to him, staring menacingly at Lily. They took out their wands and pointed them at her.

“Get out of here,”� one of them hissed.

Lily whipped her own wand out. “In case you haven’t noticed I’m Head Girl. I didn’t get that position by sitting on my arse… I’ve got the highest grades in all of my classes particularly in Charms and Transfiguration. I think you’d all look just smashing as bugs. Of course, then I might accidentally step on you, but accidents happen. So, go ahead,”� Lily’s eyes narrowed as she continued, staring at each of the boys, whose wands were now shaking, “ _try me_.”�

The four Slytherins looked at each other, as if debating their choices. They didn’t know whether or not she was serious, but they didn’t seem to want to take any chances.

“Fine, we’ll go. But you better watch your back.”�

“Brave words for a Slytherin,”� Lily snapped. “But, I don’t have to watch my back because if any of you even _think_ of trying anything I won’t give you a fair warning before I attack. Already, I’m going straight to Dumbledore and I’m going to tell him _exactly_ what I’ve seen here tonight and if I even hear about one of you _speaking_ harshly to another person again or coming near this girl ever again, I’ll personally make sure you’re expelled faster than you can say 'Quidditch.'”� Lily’s fingers were shaking in anger. “Get to your common room before I do something that will make me worse than you, and believe me, that’d have to be something incredibly big. Now get out of my sight.”�

The four boys scattered, leaving Lily and the girl behind. As soon as they left, the girl collapsed to the ground and Lily rushed towards her, gathering her up in her arms. “It’s okay, it’s okay. You’re going to be just fine.”� The girl threw her arms around Lily and continued to sob. “Shh…”� Lily rubbed her back comfortingly. “It’s okay.”�

After a few minutes the girl’s sobs seemed to get quieter. Lily moved slightly and looked down at the girl. “Come on, let’s get you to the hospital wing.”�

“No!”� the girl cried. “No, please. I just want to go back to my dorm. Please? I just want to go back to my dorm.”�

Lily looked down at her, slightly doubtful that the girl didn't need to spend a night in the hospital wing. But the pleading and desperation in the second year's eyes won Lily over. “Okay,”� Lily helped the girl up, “but how about we stop by the bathroom to wash away some of that blood, okay? And I can get some dreamless sleep potion if you need it.”�

“Thank-”� the girl broke into sobs again, making it nearly impossible for Lily to make out the rest of what she said, “you.”�

Lily smiled comfortingly at her, and put an arm around her shoulders, leading her from the room. They stopped at the nearest bathroom to clean the girl up, and then continued to the hospital wing, where Lily begged for a bottle of dreamless sleep potion from Mme. Pomfrey while the girl waited outside. With a lot of pleading, Lily gained the bottle without many questions and was on her way again.

“You’re going to be okay,”� Lily said as they neared Gryffindor tower. “You’re a second year, right?”�

“Yes,”� the girl’s voice was barely above a whisper. “I’m Kendall. Kendall Spinnet.”�

“Well, Kendall,”� Lily kneeled down a little, “if you ever need anything, all you have to do is ask one of your fellow Gryffindors. We are all here for you… and we stick together, okay?”�

“'Kay,”� Kendall replied. Lily said the password to the common room and entered, with Kendall in front of her. She guided Kendall in the direction of the second year girls' dorm, but Kendall shook her head. “I want to go to my sister’s dorm.”�

“Who’s your sister?”� Lily asked.

“Stacy,”� Kendall replied. “She’s a fifth year.”�

Lily nodded and walked back towards the fifth year rooms. Along the way, one of Kendall’s friends rushed up to her. Lily quickly made up an excuse for Kendall, who was clearly uncomfortable with her friend’s questioning. Once they reached the dorm rooms, Lily pulled Stacy to the side as Kendall sat on her sister’s bed, staring blankly in front of her.

“You’re Kendall’s sister, right?”� Lily asked.

Stacy nodded, barely even paying attention to Lily. She was staring at her sister with concern written all over her face. “What’s wrong with her? What happened?”�

“She was harassed by a few Slytherins,”� Lily said.

Stacy sharply turned back to face Lily. “ _What_?!”�

“I came upon them before they could do anything serious, I think. She hasn’t been very talkative, though it’s understandable why.”� Lily sighed. “You know that she’s not the first one the Slytherins have harassed. I was able to get her some dreamless sleep potion, and I’m now going to go talk to Professor Dumbledore about it. I took points away from them, but Professor Dumbledore is the only one with the power to do anything more.”�

“Thanks Lily,”� Stacy said. She looked back at her sister. “I’ll keep a closer eye on her from now on.”�

Lily nodded and walked towards the door. With her hand on the doorknob she said, “I’ll be sure to let you know what happens.”� She turned to see Stacy smile weakly and nod before gathering her sister up in her arms.

Lily stopped by her dorm to tell the others to head down to the Head common room without her. She gave them the password, ignored their questions, and went to talk to Professor Dumbledore.

\---

A few minutes later, Lily was standing in front of the entrance to Dumbledore’s office. She said the password to the gargoyle and walked up the steps. She stopped in front of the door and knocked.

Dumbledore’s voice called out, “Come in.”�

Lily opened the door and stepped inside. She didn’t even look up until she had shut the door and turned back around. Across from Dumbledore, sitting casually in a seat, was James Potter. He had his arm slung over the back of his chair as he turned to look at her.

“Ah,”� Dumbledore waved Lily closer. “Miss Evans.”�

“I can come back if you’re busy, Professor,”� Lily said. She walked up the steps and stood next to the empty chair besides James.

“Nonsense, you weren’t interrupting anything aside from two people catching up,”� Dumbledore nodded towards the chair, which Lily dutifully sat in. “Now,”� Dumbledore smiled kindly at Lily, “how can I help you?”�

“Professor McGonagall told me I was to tell you when I took points away from students. Earlier tonight I took two hundred points away from Slytherin.”�

James shifted in his seat next to her and Dumbledore frowned. “That is a lot of points, Miss Evans.”�

“Yes, sir, I know it is,”� Lily said, “but they were harassing a second year Gryffindor girl. When I got there she was bleeding and it looked like they had hit her more than once.”�

“And who,”� Dumbledore’s voice was hard, “were these boys?”�

Lily gave him the names of the few she recognized and recounted what had happened that night. When she finished, both he and James were stiffly sitting in their seats.

“Is Miss Spinnet in the hospital wing?”� Dumbledore asked.

“No,”� Lily said. “I tried to take her there but she just wanted to get back to her dorm. I left her with her sister before I came here.”�

Dumbledore nodded, “Very well, Miss Evans. Thank you for coming to me. Are you all right?”�

“Of course,”� Lily said.

“You weren’t hurt or threatened?”� James asked, seeming to be concerned. Lily, surprised that he had spoken, looked at him briefly and then back at Dumbledore who was waiting for her answer as well.

“Well, yes, but-”� Lily was interrupted by James.

“What did they say?”�

Lily sighed. “They just told me to watch my back, but to be perfectly honest I threatened to turn them into bugs-”�

“That isn’t too serious a threat, Miss Evans,”� Dumbledore said.

“I also said that I might _accidentally_ step on them,”� Lily said. She could have sworn that she saw a small smile on Dumbledore’s face. “And that if they did attack me I wouldn’t hesitate in defending myself, although I guess that isn’t necessarily a threat.”�

“No, it is not,”� Dumbledore said. “I will talk to these boys, Miss Evans. Thank you for coming to me.”�

Lily, knowing a dismissal when she heard one, nodded and stood up. She left the office quickly, wanting to get to her friends, knowing that they would have exactly what she needed: alcohol and cigarettes.

Unfortunately, Lily wasn’t about to get there easily. Behind her, she heard the same deep voice that she couldn’t stop thinking about call out her name. 

Lily slowed down, turned and waited for him. Once he was in front of her she had to tilt her head back to see his face. He smiled down at her and said in a husky voice, “Let me walk you the rest of the way.”�

Lily let out the breath she hadn't even noticed she was holding. “You really don’t have to, I’ll be fine.”�

“I need a walk anyways,”� James said, his hazel eyes twinkling... _smiling_ even. 

Lily knew there was no way she was going to get out of this. “Very well, but I’m going to the Head dorms instead of Gryffindor tower.”�

“Fine by me.”�

Lily turned and walked side by side him. For minutes there was silence until James broke it. “So, Lily, do you know what you’ll be doing after you graduate?”�

“Not really.”� Lily flipped her hair back, as she turned to look at him. “Survive, I suppose.”�

“The life of an Auror,”� James said.

Lily kept silent. They walked up a set of stairs. When they were almost to the top, the stairs suddenly moved. Lily fell backwards, and probably would have gone down the rest of the stairs had James not grabbed her and pulled her up against him. Her hands fell on his chest and Lily could feel his muscles tightening beneath her fingers. With a loud 'boom,' the stairs settled against the new landing. Neither of the two moved, frozen against the stair rail.

Lily shifted, and suddenly felt something… _God_! Not wanting to be completely obviously, she stepped back a little, “Er… thank you. I hate these changing staircases sometimes.”�

“Yes, me too.”� James agreed. Lily forced herself not to look down at his pants. _There’s no way he’s that big_ … Lily was tempted to ask if it was his wand, but then could just imagine the way he would smirk (not to mention how cliché it would sound). When he had attended Hogwarts, he had been one of the biggest rule breakers in the entire school - she had yet to figure out if he still intended to break rules while _teaching_ at Hogwarts.

They were silent for the rest of the way back to the common room, aside from some of the paintings calling out greetings. It wasn’t until they came to the corridor that lead to the Head dorms when Lily encountered problems. She was turning to thank James for walking her when behind him, she saw Cece and Cordy walking with a bottle of tequila and a small bag of lemons. At the sight of Lily and James’ back, they visibly paled and froze. Lily too, froze and continued to stare, openmouthed, beyond James.

James noticed and began to turn around when Lily grabbed his arm turning him back to face her. “You know… I’ve always wondered what… um... Aurors do,”� Lily said, twirling her hair with a couple of fingers, biting her bottom lip, eyes fixed on the two girls past James.

James cocked an eyebrow. “Do? I explained that yesterday in class.”�

Well, damn, Lily screwed herself on that one. She looked past James again to see Cece and Cordy still standing there. She was going to kill them later.

“What I meant,”� Lily continued looking up at James, “was what do Aurors do _for fun_?”�

He seemed to buy that. Cece and Cordy finally began to move, seeing that Lily was keeping James busy. James tilted his head, thinking. Unfortunately it blocked Lily’s view of the twins. She moved a little sideways to see better.

“Aurors are really no different from anyone else. We do the same things that you do, or that you will do once you graduate,”� James said. Lily nodded, still looking past him at the twins. They were near the painting. Lily began to relax and actually focus on what James was saying.

It was never that easy.

Cordy dropped the bag of lemons she was holding. She and Cece froze, and Lily really could not believe her luck. As soon as James was turning around, Lily spun him back to face her.

“What?”� James asked, thoroughly confused.

Lily acted instinctively. Whenever she was with a man who was as highly attractive as James, she made her move. Unfortunately James was her professor and she couldn’t make a move on him. But now that Lily was in an incredibly tight spot, stuck between getting in horrible lengths of trouble or getting her _and her friends_ in horrible lengths of trouble - she chose the former. Her hands seductively slid up James’s chest and when she reached his shoulders, she pulled him towards her, pulling herself up at the same time. 

Seconds after her lips touched his James was reeling. His hands slid down to her waist and he kissed her back aggressively.

Lily never dreamed that she’d be kissing James Potter. Well, Lily had never _thought_ that she would be kissing James Potter… and that he would be kissing her back. Suddenly, Lily felt his tongue at her lips, probing for entrance. Her mouth opened and James moved her back a few steps until her back was against the wall.

Lily never wondered if Cece and Cordy were still standing in the hallway. She didn’t care.

Her hands moved from James’s shoulders to the back of his neck. Her nails scraped lightly against the nape of his neck before James was kissing her even more furiously, tilting his head for better access to her mouth. Lily kissed him back, and pulled his head closer to hers, her hands tangled in his hair.

They didn’t come up for breath until minutes later. When they did they were breathing heavily and occasionally nipping at each other’s lips. They stopped when Nearly Headless Nick, the Gryffindor ghost, and the Bloody Baron, the Slytherin ghost, floated by, not noticing them. Lily wanted to fall back and blend in with the wall. What had she done?! She’d just made out with a professor! A professor! _Her_ professor! She looked up to see James looking down at her, pure desire in his eyes. She looked down at his hands, which were currently on her waist.

Then, it seemed that reality hit James. He blinked, shielding the emotions showing in his eyes, and stepped back. His hands left Lily’s waist. She licked her lips nervously and then tried to step around him. He put one arm out in from her. She looked at him questioningly.

He sighed. “Lily-”�

“Thank you for walking me,”� Lily interrupted, her voice silky smooth. “Good night, Professor Potter.”�

She ducked under his arm, made sure to slightly rub against him and could feel his stare as she walked to the entrance of the Head common room. She turned back to see him still staring, and she mumbled the password. She walked in and the portrait swung shut behind her, effectively blocking her view of James and vice versa. Now, there was only one thing left to do.

\---

“ _LILY_!”� Cordy shrieked. She ducked behind the couch in the common room as Lily fired another hex at her and then jumped up again once it was safe. “I didn’t mean to drop the bag!”�

“What were you two doing?!”� Lily shot a glare in Cece’s direction who was hiding behind the chair that Jessica was sitting in. “Do you realize that you could have gotten into a lot of trouble if a professor had seen you with that alcohol?”�

“We only went down the hall!”� Cece shouted. “We didn’t think that anyone would be coming along so late at night!”�

“What happened?”� Aimee asked. She, Jessica, and Lacy had been waiting in the common room for the twins and Lily to join them when the twins, alcohol and lemons in their arms, had come running into the room with looks of shock on their faces. They spent the better part of ten minutes staring dumbly at each other before Lily came into the room and began firing hexes.

“James was walking me back from Professor Dumbledore’s office when I spotted these two walking down the hall, not even bothering to hide the alcohol in their arms. I had to try and distract James-”�

“Well, it worked!”� Cordy stated, as if that made the situation better. When Lily glared at her once again she ducked back behind the couch.

“I don’t see the problem,”� Lacy said.

“You two can come out now,”� Jessica said. “Lily’s put her wand away.”�

The twins looked above their furniture, confirming that Lily had actually put her wand away. They saw her sitting in a chair, lighting a cigarette. There was dead silence before Cece exchanged a look with Cordy, one not missed by the others, and shifted anxiously on the couch.

“So, come on Lily… tell us how it was,”� Cece prodded.

Lily rolled her eyes. “No.”�

“How _what_ was?”� Lacy asked. “What happened?”�

“When Lily first started distracting James,”� Cordy explained, “I dropped the bag of lemons, _on accident_ , and James was turning around to see what had made the noise so Lily… er… kissed him.”�

“ _What_?!”� Aimee and Jessica shouted.

“Well, ‘attacked’ him is more like it,”� Cece said. “Although he was kissing back pretty damn aggressively if I do say so myself.”�

“It looked pretty hot,”� Cordy stated.

“Are you _serious_?”� Lacy asked. Her jaw dropped as she looked back at her friend. “But… Lily, he’s a professor.”�

“I know!”� Lily shouted. She stood up and began to pace back and forth. “ _I’ve_ been saying that since day one. Yet, all I heard from you lot was ‘So?’, ‘Who cares?’, ‘My cousin dated an older man’… I didn’t _mean_ to kiss him. It just _happened_. And then he was kissing me back and pushing me against the wall-”�

“Pushing you against the wall?”� Jessica slumped back in her chair. “Why does Lily get all the aggressive, sexy ones?”�

Lily snorted. “God, I need to get drunk.”�

“What did he say?”� Aimee asked. “After you two kissed.”�

Lily shrugged, flicked her cigarette and then took a drag. “He said my name.”�

“How did he say it?”� Cordy asked. “Like… in the breathy, husky sort of way?”�

“Or in the ‘we-should-shag’ sort of way?”� Cece asked.

“Neither,”� Lily threw the cigarette into the fireplace. “It was like he was about to give me a speech about how he was a professor and I was a student.”�

The other girls groaned sympathetically.

“Do you guys remember Frank Longbottom?”� Lacy asked.

“He was in James’ year, right?”� Jessica asked.

Lacy nodded. “He was dating Alice… something or other. She was a year above us. Anyway, once he graduated he sometimes came back to substitute classes when Professor Vector went on vacations with her family. So, he was _technically_ Alice’s professor when they were dating, Lily, and now they’re married. ”�

Lily smiled at Lacy’s attempt to cheer her up. “Come on guys, I need to seriously get drunk. Tonight has just sucked beyond redemption.”�

“Shall we play ‘I never’ then?”� Aimee asked. The others agreed and sat around the small table in the common room. They put out the lemons, salt, tequila and shot glasses.

“Lily, want to start?”� Lacy offered, pouring tequila into everyone’s shot glasses.

“Hell yes,”� Lily breathed. She thought for a second before saying, “I never… had sex in a public place.”�

Jessica and Cece both licked salt off of their wrists, downed the shot and then bit the lemon. They grimaced and then Cece continued. “I never… made out with my professor.”�

“You are such a bitch, Cece.”� Lily replied. Still, she smiled and took the shot happily. _Yes_ , she thought, _alcohol makes any situation look a_ little _better_.

\---

The next day that followed was complete hell for the six girls, but none more so than Lily. All six had hangovers, and apparently Millie, the seventh year Hufflepuff who they usually got their hangover potion from had run all out. They had forgone breakfast in the Great Hall and instead attempted to sleep for as many more minutes as they could.

And, of course, they had Defense Against the Dark Arts first thing in the morning. The six were early to class - surprisingly - and chose seats farthest away from the bright windows and more towards the back of the classroom. They promptly fell asleep in their seats.

They were woken up by a Ravenclaw, a friend of Aimee's, minutes before the class was to start. They promptly told her off for yelling at them, when she had in fact, been whispering. The Ravenclaw had scampered off to the rest of her friends, causing the students who were already there to look curiously at the six girls who were attempting to get back to sleep.

“Good morning class,”� James greeted. He clapped his hands together and pulled out the attendance sheet.

“Hmmph!”� Jessica snorted. “What’s so good about it?”�

Lily giggled and then clutched her head. She still had a slight buzz, as did the rest of her friends, and laughing at the slightest thing did nothing to improve her throbbing headache. The six managed to stay awake long enough to say ‘I’m here’ when their names were called, but after that they all fell back to sleep.

It wasn’t like they didn’t try to stay awake. In fact, they had barely closed their eyes before James was passing out books, dropping them on their desks with a loud 'thump.'

“Why did he let elephants in here?”� Lacy groaned.

“They’re so loud!”� Aimee whispered, her hands over her ears. Lily nodded and flinched when James dropped Cece’s book on her desk quite loudly. She had been expecting the same kind of treatment and she was sure that her brain would explode when it happened. For Lily though, it didn't happen. Her book was gently placed onto her desk and then James was gone. For that sign of kindness, Lily vowed to pay attention.

It wasn’t that easy.

Within five minutes, Lily’s eyelids were drooping and she glanced around; Aimee was laying on her arm, her face away from the front of the class. Cordy and Cece had their books up and open, and were sleeping behind them. Jessica was resting on her hand propped up by her elbow, and Lacy was sleeping on her sweater, which she had bunched up like a pillow. Soon, Lily’s hands fell to her desk and then her chin was resting on them. Before long, she was dead to the world, her breathing slow and even.

For the rest of the class, aside from the six sleeping girls, the class passed by incredibly slow. The girls woke up when they heard the bell ring and felt as if they had only just closed their eyes. They yawned and stood up, gathering their things. The class filed out the door, with the six girls moving slowly in the back of the line. James was standing near the door and when it was only the six left he shut it, effectively blocking their way out.

“Do any of you know what I talked about today?”� he asked.

Lacy glanced at the title of her book. “How to defend ourselves against curses?”�

The others fought back the urge to laugh, although giggles slipped out. James crossed his arms over his chest. “Good guess, Lacy.”�

Lacy reddened. The girls avoided his gaze, except for Lily who defiantly stared back at him when he looked at her.

“Why are the six of you so tired?”� James asked.

Cece snorted, and then laughed. Her sister elbowed her, although she was grinning too.

“And what, Miss Walters, is so funny?”� James asked.

“Nothing.”�

“Nothing.”�

Cece and Cordy looked at each other and then laughed, the other girls joining in with them. James didn’t seem to find it amusing at all. He cleared his voice.

“They’re twins,”� Aimee said, as if that explained why they were all laughing. James’ look told Aimee he obviously knew that. Under her breath she muttered, “I was just trying to help, you bloody wanker.”�

Next to her, Lily broke into fits of laughter.

“I expect to see all of you bright and early on Sunday morning,”� James said sternly.

“But… that’s the _weekend_ ,”� Jessica said, whispering the last word.

“Why?”� Lacy asked.

“Because you will be serving your detention. That’s why,”� James replied.

“We have detention?”� Cordy asked. “When did that happen?”�

“Right now,”� James said.

“But, we haven’t done anything,”� Cece protested.

“You fell asleep in my class,”� James reminded her.

“You’re no fun,”� Cece pouted, “and class shouldn’t be this early anyways.”�

James was tempted to take points away from Gryffindor but couldn’t, thanks to his Gryffindor pride. Instead he held the door open. “Detention. Six A.M. Sunday.”� He pointed them out the door.

As each one passed they saluted James. He sighed and watched as they walked down the hallway. Lily, he noticed, walked with a definite swing in her hips.

_Tap_.

James turned back around. There was an owl outside of his window. He closed the door, crossed the room, and opened the window, allowing the owl entrance. He stroked its feathers and gave it some water while he read his note.

_Prongs,_

_Wormtail and Moony are all coming tomorrow night around eight-ish. See you then, mate._

_Padfoot_

James sighed in relief. He needed the advice of his fellow Marauders now more than ever.

\---


	4. Dancing Queen

  


**Author's Note:**

Well, hello. It's been a _very_ long time since I've been around anywhere - here and fanfiction.net - and I'm really sorry about that. There's been a lot of stuff that's been going on in my personal life that has kept fan fiction the last thing on my mind. Since the last time I was around (January of '05 or '06?) my dad has come down with cancer three different times, and my uncle had a complete mental breakdown... not to mention normal family drama. Add in that I went off to my first year of college and was overwhelmed by classes, grades, and my own personal crap. I'm also getting surgery towards the end of this month and so my plate has been completely filled.

I'm really sorry about how long I disappeared for. I've only recently had the chance to look at a few of the reviews I've gotten and I'm greatly appreciative of all of the interest/support/questions/concerns you all held for me.

Thank you to everyone who has been keeping an eye out at other sites for people who have been posting _Hot For Teacher_. Just to clear it up, I haven't posted anywhere but here and so anything else is anyone's guess... Also, I have never approved of any taking the plot of _Hot For Teacher_ and making it their own. Obviously, I wasn’t the one who came up with the idea of a student/teacher relationship, nor was I the one who came up with the idea of Lily and James as student/teacher. BUT, I did come up with my own original characters and my own plotline. Blatant copying of my story, and changing a few names, is still plagiarism. And that sucks.

As for this story, I'm going to have to drop it. I'm sorry to everyone who's been following it, but until today I hadn't looked at the fic in a little under two years. I feel as if I've grown past the story, and the level it's at. I had a lot of amazing ideas planned for the story, and ideally, I want to scrap everything I have and rework the whole story. Unfortunately, with everything going on in my life I just don't have the time to do it. I'm going to post up the rest of the chapters that I have (up to Chapter 8, I think) for everyone who wants to continue reading what I have. Again, I'm sorry about my long absence, and I'm grateful for all of you sticking around with me. :D Thanks.

Also... thanks to Kate for betaing this for me (forever and a day ago). I appreciate it. :)

_**Chapter 4: Dancing Queen** _

_Friday night and the lights are low_  
Looking out for the place to go  
Where they play the rock music, getting in the swing  
You come in to look for a king

_Anybody could be that guy_  
Night is young and the music's high  
With a bit of rock music, everything is fine  
You're in the mood for a dance  
And when you get the chance

_You are the dancing queen,_  
Young and sweet  
Only seventeen  
-"Dancing Queen" by ABBA

In the late 1930's and early 1940's, in the time of Grindelwald, a witch by the name of Kloe Skylar built a small bar called Skylar's in the village of Hogsmeade. Now, because the village was so close to Hogwarts many of the people who lived there (and several other witches and wizards) felt relatively safer. Unlike the elementary pub, The Three Broomsticks, and the after hours pub of The Hog's Head, Skylar's included dancing. As time went on, and more people came to dance at Skylar's, the bar became larger. When it first was christened as a “club” it just doubled in size, but as its popularity grew, it tripled, then became two stories, and then three. It was largely popular, and was considered an escape by many witches and wizards, most especially, Aurors.

On March 22nd of 1945, Grindelwald, personally, went to Skylar's. He wore a cloak, and as soon as he had entered, had been deeply angry at the thought of all these witches and wizards celebrating when they should in fact be cowering in their houses at the mere thought of him. Too deep in his rage, Grindelwald lashed out curse after curse at the patrons, and when she came to stop him, Grindelwald cast the killing curse upon Kloe Skylar. That was the night that Albus Dumbledore defeated the dark wizard Grindelwald.

After that night, ten people had been killed and thirteen had been injured. The bottom floor of Skylar's was completely and utterly ruined.

Kloe Skylar's children took it upon themselves to remake the club that had been so popular, and every couple of years they remake the club just a little to match up with the times. They, and their children, continue that effort today.

\---

It had been completely by accident that Lily and Cece had been able to enter Skylar's during their fourth year. There was usually an age limit of seventeen and no current Hogwarts students were allowed. They'd been sneaking out of the castle to meet with an outside contact who usually provided them with anything they needed (drugs and alcohol wise). He had arranged to meet them by the Shrieking Shack. Unfortunately for them, he came late and looked incredibly out of breath, as if he had been chased. He had explained to them that Argus Filch, the new caretaker of Hogwarts, was heading their way and they should run for Hogsmeade. Then, he had apparated away.

It had only taken Lily and Cece a moment to comprehend what he had said. They took the bag he had given them, not even bothering to see if all their stuff was in it, and ran for it… only to crash into a handsome man, who merely looked three or so years older than them. When asked why they were rushing, the girls briefly explained that they had to hide from someone. Not asking any more questions, he lead them onto the public street and around a few corners. There, in a section of Hogsmeade they never had been allowed in, they saw a long line of witches and wizards. They'd exchanged curious glances before the man lead them to the front of the line, merely nodded at the wizards (buff men wearing black and holding their wands out confidently in front of them), and then lead them through the doors.

They'd seen what they'd only heard about from some of the older girls who went to magical clubs during the summer. But, so they learned later from the man, no Hogwarts student had ever been inside of Skylar's while they were at school (except for the Marauders who were an exception to every rule) and Skylar's was possibly the best club that existed in the magical world.

The man turned out to be Brett Skylar, called 'Sky' by his close friends and only Brett by his intimates, and the great-grandson of Kloe Skylar herself. He'd bought the two of them drinks and listened to them talk while he would occasionally talk back. They didn't remember how long they had stayed, but after that Lily and Cece had officially made the list to get into Skylar's whenever they wanted, with whoever they wanted, and best of all, _drink_ whatever they wanted. Soon after, Cordy, Jessica, Aimee and Lacy made the A list, and won the acquaintance of Brett.

As the years passed, the girls made sure to visit Skylar's more often, at least twice every month, if they could. So far, they hadn’t been caught, but had made several close calls with Filch and occasionally, McGonagall.

They'd never once seen the Marauders there.

\---

"Are you guys ready yet!?" Jessica snapped impatiently. From inside of the Head Girl's bathroom there was some mumbling from the twins. Irritated, Lily blew a large bubble out of her bubble gum. Next to her, Aimee filed her nails.

It was around nine and Lily, Jessica, Aimee, and Lacy had been ready to go by eight thirty. The twins however, had not. They'd been primping, doing their make up, redoing their makeup and then changing over and over again for the past half an hour.

"If you're not out here in..." Lily looked down at her watch, "five minutes, we're leaving without you two!" Lily called. Four minutes later, the bathroom door finally opened and the twins walked out.

"You don't have to rush us," Cece said, "it's not like we have a time limit or something."

"No," Aimee said bitterly, "but some of us want to get the hell out of here." In comparison to the others, Aimee had had a particularly hard day. She had lost her Transfiguration homework, but luckily gained an extension by complaining about her “throbbing” headache (from "too much studying" she had explained), begging McGonagall to just let her have an extra day (the only reason McGonagall had agreed was because Aimee was one of her best students and had never missed class). She then lost said extension when she accidentally spilled her inkbottle all over McGonagall, which led to a detention directly following the one she would have with James. Then, come Herbology class, Aimee received yet another detention, along with the other seventh year Ravenclaws and Slytherins for not "paying attention." All in all, she wanted to get her mind off things and party.

"Well, then let's get the show on the road," Cordy said.

In previous years, the girls were forced into sneak out of the castle through the public hallways, get to an empty classroom and steal out of the window. The advantage of being Head Girl was having a first floor common room with window access to the outside world. There would be no more sneaking through the hallways for the six friends.

Aimee was the first to climb out of the window. It was considerably easier for her than for the others because she was wearing a pantsuit. It was a plum-colored halter top with a 'v' neckline. She wore gold metallic flip flops, one of which slid off once she landed on the ground. She slipped it back on and waited.

Soon Jessica was climbing over as well. Well, technically sliding for she was wearing a tight, white calf-length, spaghetti strap dress with a red cummerbund directly under her chest and ankle length red boots. She grinned at Aimee and turned around. "Did my butt get dirty?"

Aimee laughed quietly before whispering back, "No… but that's exactly why you shouldn't wear white."

"Hey! I'm wearing white," Cece protested. She climbed as easily as Aimee had. It was easy to see why. Cece was wearing a white long sleeved, disco-style shirt with a tapered body, soft brown leather pants with no pockets and white suede heels. She jumped from the window and then grinned. "Well that was easy."

"Not if you're wearing a dress," Jessica snapped.

"Amen to that," Cordy grumbled as she gripped the window frame and, her back to the others, pulled herself up on the window. Her dress was by far the worst to move in. It was a black sleeveless empire dress with a gold oriental print, square bodice and side-to-back ties (not to mention it was incredibly tight). Black calf length leather boots completed the outfit. Cordy was able to maneuver one leg at a time over the window frame. Then she jumped and landed with a "humph!"

Lacy quickly followed her. She and Lily were the only ones wearing short skirts, so for them it was going to be quite the challenge. She seemed to follow Cordy's method and hopped onto the window frame. It took her longer than Cordy to swing her legs over, but she finally did and landed. While Lily was climbing through, Lacy brushed off her green shirt with sleeves two inches above the elbow, mandarin collar and extremely low cut neckline that would have been incredibly scandalous had it not been covered up. Lacy had worn a black spaghetti strap shirt underneath it. She brushed off the back of her white wrap around skirt, double checked the ties on the side of the shirt then rebuckled her black open toed heels.

"And _we_ primp?" Cece snorted.

Lacy rolled her eyes. "That wasn't primping. I was just making sure that everything was in place."

"It's primping."

Lily jumped down, interrupting their conversation. She wore a long sleeved black shirt with rose silhouettes. It had plunging neckline and tied in the front, a little above her navel. She wore a straight, tan, leather skirt with calf high black leather boots. She looked up at the others. "Are we ready then?"

\---

During his fifth year at Hogwarts, Sirius Black moved out of his house and into his best friend’s, James Potter. He had no money to his name until one of his uncles left him some, and the following summer, he bought a flat of his own, which he lives in to this day. His flat was decorated extravagantly for a man living on his own, but this was no surprise for Sirius' friends. It was commonly known that he liked to show off. He was ever the charmer and ladies man, considerably worse than James was.

When James arrived at Sirius', Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew were already there. They greeted each other with hugs and slaps on the back.

Since Hogwarts had ended it was weird for the four not to spend a lot of time with each other. They had all lived together for seven years and were used to seeing each other every day. It didn't matter that they weren't blood related; to the four, they were brothers in every way. To go from such closeness to barely seeing each other outside of work was hard for the four friends, so they made it a point to meet at least every weekend. For the first couple of years it was easy for them to do so. Then, Remus had taken up the job offer from Dumbledore and wasn't able to always make the meetings. Soon, family matters took up some of Peter's time as well, and now that James was officially a professor at Hogwarts, he would have much less time to go to the weekly gatherings.

Sirius handed James a beer and soon the four were talking as if no time had gone by at all. James told them about calling McGonagall "Minnie" (which had brought back many memories). Remus had told them about running into Mad-Eye Moody, a strange but brilliant Auror. Peter had told them about a group of goblins coming in while everyone else was out to lunch, and how they had spent the better part of an hour yelling at him in goblin before someone had finally returned and saved him. And Sirius told them about all of the new witches in training to be Aurors.

For an hour, James was able to relax and be completely at ease with his friends.

Then, Sirius asked what James knew he would ask. "So, keeping any _particular_ witch in detention lately?"

Remus laughed and shook his head. "Now we all know why Dumbledore chose Prongs to be the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor instead of you. With you as professor, the better part of the lesson would be spent with you flirting with all of the girls."

"Not all of them," Sirius retorted, "just the better looking ones."

Peter snorted. "Not much has changed since we graduated then."

Sirius laughed along with the others and threw Peter another beer once he had finished his. "Anyway Prongs, don't avoid the question."

"He's been a professor for a week! I doubt he's even given detention to anyone yet," Remus said.

Sirius sighed in exasperation. "Moony, will you let the man speak?"

James grinned at his two friends. "Why? You two seem to be doing just fine."

"Pillock."

"Wanker."

"Tosser."

"Bugger."

"Pratt."

"Pillock."

"I already said that," Sirius said.

"Yes, you did… but I didn't." James retorted.

"My I ask _how_ you are a professor again?" Sirius asked.

James laughed, and this time poured himself a glass of fire whiskey. A second later Remus took it out of his hand to pour his own. "I'm better looking than you are, and more popular. That's why."

Instead of saying something sarcastic in reply, Sirius just looked James over. "I don't believe it," a grin spread across his face, "you've _shagged_ one of your students!"

Peter leaned forward in his chair, eager to hear James' reply. Remus was looking between James and Sirius, completely amused.

James rolled his eyes. "I haven't shagged anyone since Angela."

"But," Sirius leaned back, "that was three weeks ago."

Remus raised an eyebrow. "You know, Padfoot, just because you'll shag any good looking female that walks doesn't mean everyone else will."

Sirius ignored him and focused on James. "Honestly mate, you have one of the best opportunities, you know that? Plenty of girls dying to get detention with you and you aren't taking advantage of it!? Who are you and what have you done with the real Prongs? I bet Moony's right. I bet you haven't even assigned detention yet!"

"You'd be wrong," James took a swig of his beer. "I've actually assigned six detentions."

"Really?" This from Remus.

"All girls?" Sirius asked.

"Yep," James answered.

" _Really_?" Remus asked again, his mouth agape.

Sirius was grinning. "There's the Prongs I know! You were frightening me for a moment there."

"I'm not going to sleep with my students, Padfoot. It'd be incredibly uncomfortable for them, and they'd probably expect something to come out of it aside from a good shag."

"Well, that didn't stop you when we were at Hogwarts," Peter reminded him. "You, Padfoot and Moony slept your way through the houses."

"Except for Slytherin," Sirius said, "and we never slept with anyone who was below fourth year."

"Which Prongs would technically be doing," Peter argued. He tossed his head back to take a swig of beer, his blonde hair falling over his bright blue eyes. He swallowed and said, "Prongs is four years older than all of the seventh years and anything below that would be… well not quite right."

"Thank you Wormtail," James said. He tipped his beer bottle in Peter's direction. Peter tipped his back, grinning madly.

"I can't believe you," Sirius groaned. "It's not like it's against the rules! Remember in our sixth year… that new Ancient Runes teacher was definitely shagging a few of the seventh years and he was older than you Prongs."

James shifted and leaned backwards. "Do you also remember that he only lasted a year for that very same reason?"

"Well, not for that very same reason," Remus said. "He actually drank on the job."

"See!" Sirius exclaimed. "What is it? Are they all ugly or something?"

Remus snorted. "Not bloody likely."

"How would you know?" Sirius and James asked.

Remus sighed. "I work for Dumbledore, something you lot seem to forget. I visit Hogwarts frequently and there are plenty of gorgeous girls there."

"Anyone in particular?" Sirius asked.

Remus looked over at James. "Prongs?"

James rolled his eyes. "Don't drag me into this."

"You're our inside source!" Sirius jokingly protested. "I still can't believe you, mate. Not even _one_ girl?"

"No."

"Well, have you at least snogged a girl?" Sirius asked.

James downed the rest of his fire whiskey and poured more into his glass.

"Prongs!" Remus laughed. He nudged his friend. "Well, tell us!"

James glared at Remus. "Whose side are you on, mate?"

Sirius grinned and answered for him. "The side where we get to listen to you talk about the fine birds at Hogwarts. Now, get on with the details of the snog session."

James snorted. "It wasn't a snog session. In fact it barely lasted more than five minutes."

"More than two minutes is classified as a snog session, Prongs," Peter stated. He was smiling.

"Whatever," James ran a hand through his hair, ruffling the back.

"Ah, and that means something's wrong." Sirius noted.

James jerked his hand back down. "It does not."

"I've known you your whole life, mate. What's up?"

James mumbled something before emptying his glass and reaching to fill it up again. Sirius grabbed the bottle of fire whiskey before James could wrap his fingers around it. Irritated, James snapped. "If I tell you I'm highly attracted to someone will it make you happy, you bloody ponce?"

Sirius grinned and let go of the bottle. Peter quickly grabbed it before James did.

Sputtering, James cast a glazed gaze over in his friend's direction. Peter snatched James' glass and filled it to the rim. He set it on the table between him and James. "Highly attracted to who?" Peter asked anxiously, unable to wait for the answer.

“It’s _whom,_ Wormtail,” Remus said before James could answer.

“Jeeze, let the man speak!” Sirius exclaimed. “So Prongs, let’s continue… Highly attracted to _whom_?” Sirius finished, glancing at Remus as he said the last word.

"The Head Girl," James admitted grudgingly.

Sirius and Peter began to laugh. Remus simply grinned and whistled. "It's not that hard to believe."

"You've seen her then, Moony?" Sirius asked.

Remus nodded.

"Well?" Sirius asked.

"Gorgeous," Remus said. "Perfection on legs to be honest."

"And she's Head Girl?" Sirius raised an eyebrow and looked back at James. "Well, is she good at snogging?"

"Better than she should be for being bloody seventeen," James said, snatching the small glass from the table when Peter finally pushed it in his direction.

"Virgin?" Peter asked.

James nodded. "I think so."

Sirius shrugged. "So… do you want advice on shagging her or-?"

"I don't need bloody advice on shagging!" James snapped. "And the point is I can't shag her so what’s the point in bloody thinking about it?"

"Why can't you?" Sirius asked. "And it better not be that horseshit you said earlier, about her being a student and you being a professor. It's done all of the time."

"Oh really?" James raised an eyebrow. "Tell me, where else has it been done?"

"Beauxbatons, Durmstrang, Hogwarts… even in Muggle schools probably," Sirius replied smoothly.

James shook his head, "You are _so_ full of shit, Padfoot." He ran a hand through his hair again, ruffling it up even more.

"It's true, I swear," Sirius retorted.

"Well good for them, then. I have more willpower," James lifted his glass to his lips, almost saluting his friends and drank it down.

"How much do you want to bet?" Sirius asked.

"What?" James looked up to see Sirius moving towards his desk. He opened up the middle drawer and began to search it, opening up folders and quickly skimming the contents before throwing them back in the drawer and opening another one. James looked over at Remus, bemused. "What's he doing?"

Remus shrugged. "Looking through his desk."

"Thanks for stating the obvious." _Was there a slur in his voice_? James downed the rest of his fire whiskey glass, and hardly noticed refilling it.

Sirius came back with a red piece of parchment. He set it directly in front of James and then sat next to him on the couch. James looked at it curiously then eyed Sirius.

"This," Sirius pointed to the parchment, "is called 'Winner Takes All' parchment. It's used for gambling. What you do is write down what you're betting on, how much you're betting, what the winner gets and then those involved sign the parchment. When they do that, it's permanent… you can't take back your bet. It's pretty much why it's illegal-"

"It's _illegal!_?" Peter snapped. "Do you know how much trouble you could get into with the ministry if you have an illegal object?"

"I'm an Auror, so I'm sure I have a pretty good idea," Sirius said sarcastically. He rolled his eyes and focused his attention back on James. "Now, I never said it was illegal for _everything_. It's mostly illegal for really serious bets. Since this bet is between friends we aren't doing anything wrong."

Peter seemed to relax. James looked from the parchment to Sirius, an incredulous expression on his face. "You're unbelievable, Padfoot, really. Where the hell do you get this shit?"

Sirius grinned cheekily and took a swig of his beer. "I know people."

"What happens when someone wins?" Remus asked, his eyes roaming over the parchment.

Sirius leaned back against the couch, looking completely at ease. "Well, if you lose you have a certain time frame to pay up before you start getting hexed and cursed… it's not pretty."

James shook his head. Go figure Sirius would have something like that. He looked up. "And what are we betting?"

"We're betting on your willpower." Sirius grinned. "I'm going to bet that you'll have sex with the Head Girl by the end of next week. If I win I get to come to one of your seventh year double periods as a... guest speaker."

"A guest speaker," James said drolly. With a small chuckle, James shook his head. "No way."

"Well, finish listening," Sirius said. "If you win and you last throughout the next weekend I won't bother you about shagging, flirting, or even bloody well talking to any of the students while you're there."

James looked at Remus, who shrugged. Peter was biting his lip and looking between the two.

James sighed. "You won't say _anything_ _at all_? You won't even ask me if there are any gorgeous girls there, or about my snogging sessions or my sex life?"

"I promise," Sirius said, a broad grin on his face. James seemed to consider it for a minute before nodding. "Okay, write it up then!"

"You're serious?" Remus asked.

James shrugged. "Why not?"

"Because this is Padfoot we're talking about. There's gotta be some loophole or something-"

"I heard that," Sirius called from his seat. He was bent over the parchment, scribbling away. He hadn't even looked up.

"And what about Lily?" Remus continued.

"Who?" Peter and Sirius asked.

"Lily Evans is the Head Girl," Remus said. Sirius nodded and added that to the parchment.

James put his feet up on the table and sighed deeply. He shut his eyes for a second, massaging his temples, and didn’t reply until Remus kicked the table, knocking James' feet off. With a groan, he opened his eyes. "What about her, Moony?"

"Are you really about to risk her feelings being hurt for a silly bet?" Remus asked.

"I'm not going to do anything. That's the whole point!" James cried, throwing his hands into the air.

"Well, what if you do? Can you guarantee you won't hurt Lily when she finds out that it was nothing other than a shag?"

James shook his head slowly. "No, I remember walking up on a conversation with her and her friends. They were talking to Lily, about not encouraging her to sleep with her professor."

"You?" Sirius was looking up from the parchment.

"No, Professor Flitwick!" James rolled his eyes. "Is that thing done yet?" Sirius nodded and gave it to James to sign. James snatched the quill out of Sirius' hands and bent down to sign it. With a snort of disbelief, Remus grabbed the parchment from James' hand. His amber eyes skimmed the page once... twice... three times before he nodded and placed it back on the table.

After a moment of hesitation, James placed his signature next to Sirius'. As soon as the tip of the quill left it, the parchment glowed a bright blue before floating into the air and doubling. The two pieces spread apart before the glow flickered and died, the two pieces slowly floating down and landing on the table. Sirius picked up one of the pieces and handed it to James.

"When one of us wins the parchment will let us know, so until then," Sirius slapped James on the back, "good luck, mate."

With a nod of acknowledgement, James folded the piece of paper and thrust it into his pocket. He took another swig of fire whiskey, talked with his friends, and didn't think about the bet until later that night.

At the moment, he was too busy getting himself utterly and completely drunk.

\---

So far, Lily was having a blast. She'd spent most of the night dancing through the crowd and talking with Brett, who'd bought them a few rounds of drinks.

Well, maybe a little bit more than a few.

The others were dancing while Lily was taking a break, drinking with Brett. While Brett was talking, Lily watched her friends; Cece, Jessica and Cordy were each dancing with handsome wizards. Scanning the rest of the crowd, Lily saw Lacy and Aimee laughing by the bar. Satisfied, Lily turned back to her drink and suddenly seemed to realize that Brett was no longer talking. She looked up and smiled softly.

Brett was leaning back in his booth, his arms spread out on the cushions. He was staring at Lily.

She took a drink of her gin and tonic. "What?"

Brett tilted his head and cocked an eyebrow.

"You're staring at me," Lily said, laughing a little bit. "So again… what?"

"Nothing." Brett looked around the dance floor then back at Lily. "You're incredible, you know that?"

"No, I'm not," Lily quickly said.

"You are. It makes me wish we hadn't stopped dating," Brett said, this time, his electric blue eyes met hers, and Lily almost froze. His voice was soft, but Lily managed to hear every word despite the loud music of the club. Suddenly feeling claustrophobic, Lily downed the rest of her drink and motioned for another one. It instantly refilled. _God, she loved magic._

"We were never dating, you know." Lily sighed and twirling her glass in her hand. "We were just having a good time," she looked up in time to see a hurt look flash in Brett's eyes. She quickly added, "A _really_ good time."

Brett shrugged. "I know. Either way though, I wish we hadn't stopped." Slowly, Brett leaned forward, his elbows on the table. "Do you remember the night we started?"

Lily fought not to blush. It had been during her sixth year. She and Kevin Johnson had just broken up and she had been dancing and drinking the night away, as she was prone to doing. Brett had been watching her, and had danced with her. The next thing Lily knew they were both snogging like crazy in Brett's private rooms. She had ended up spending the entire night with him, barely sneaking back into her dorms before the others would be waking up for breakfast.

She and Brett were friends, and had just taken it up a step to lovers, but they weren't boyfriend and girlfriend. They comforted each other, and had fun together… but they were never serious. Two days before Lily was to go back home for the summer in sixth year, Brett asked Lily to stay the night with him. She had and the next morning Brett and she had talked about what was going to happen over the summer between the two of them. Brett had thought it'd be better for them to just see what happened when Lily came back. Lily had agreed.

Now, Lily didn't know whether or not she wanted to pick things back up with Brett. She needed to think about it, and Brett wasn't helping by reminding her of what she could have with him. "Of course I remember," Lily said. She looked past Brett to see Lacy and Aimee still at the bar, nursing drinks. A guy approached Lacy, who immediately began to blush. Lily silently cheered her on when she walked off with the guy to dance.

"Want to dance?" Lily asked, looking back at Brett. He smiled, a perfect smile, and stepped out from the booth. Grinning, Lily got up, finished her drink, and headed towards the dance floor. Brett grabbed her wrist and spun her back around to face him. She had no time to react before his lips crashed down onto hers. The touch was so familiar, it was as if Lily's body was reacting before her mind could. Her hand slid up to cup his cheek and her tongue darted out to caress his. After a few minutes, Lily pulled back, breathless.

"Come on," Brett said. He ran a hand down her side, his fingers caressing her naked skin above the waistline of her skirt. "Let's dance."

\---

Lily didn't know how it happened but one minute she was dancing in Brett's arms and the next she was dancing in the middle of four guys. She saw Jessica across from her and waved slightly. Jessica motioned for her to join her so Lily danced her way past the guys, wiggling out of their grip.

"What's up?" Lily asked.

Jessica nodded towards the booth where they had previously been. Lily looked over to see Lacy holding on to Aimee, who Brett was kneeling in front of. Cece and Cordy were standing nearby, glaring at everyone who passed them. "Apparently some jerk messed with Aimee's drink. She's not feeling well at all. Brett gave her something so we won't have to go to Madame Pomfrey but we think we should go home."

"Yeah, of course." Lily said, hurrying to Aimee's side. She knelt down by Brett who moved to let Lily be in front of her. Lily grabbed Aimee's hand. "Aimee, sweetie, you feeling okay?"

Aimee nodded, although sort of sluggishly. Lily stood up a little. "Okay, we're going to take you home now."

Lacy began to pull Aimee up and Jessica rushed to help. Between the two of them they would be able to carry Aimee's dead weight just fine. Lily looked at Brett. "Who did it?"

"I don't know," Brett's eyes scanned the crowd angrily. "We have a no tolerance policy on that. I can't believe anyone would even have the nerve."

"Will she be okay?" Lily continued.

Brett nodded. "She’ll be fine by tomorrow but I suggest letting her rest."

Lily nodded and bit her lip. "Okay. I have to go. I'll see you."

Brett nodded and watched as Lily walked away. She easily caught up with Cordy who was walking behind Aimee, Jessica and Lacy, while Cece was walking directly in front of them, clearing a path. Once they were outside of the club, the five girls' worry for Aimee overtook their worry of getting caught. They walked in the middle of the road, not in the shadows. And when they approached Hogwarts they headed straight for the halls instead of the window.

Luckily, no one else was in sight. They reached the Head Common Room portrait easily enough and Jessica and Lacy set Aimee down on the couch.

"I think we should go get her something from the kitchens," Cece said. She was wringing her hands nervously. "We can get some water or something and um… tea? Or… whatever else she might need."

"I think tea is a good idea, Cece," Lily said. "We could all use some. I'll go with you."

Cece nodded and the two set out once again into the hallways. They didn't talk until they reached the kitchens (and even then it was just to ask the house elves for what they needed) where the house elves also included a few pastries with the tea. They put everything into a basket that Cece was carrying.

As soon as they left, they hit a problem. There, directly in their path, were four men. Lily automatically recognized one of them. James. She and Cece cast horrified looks at each other. They were about to get into a heap of trouble. For one, they were out of bed past curfew which Lily could easily talk her way out of, although Cece couldn't. Plus, they were definitely _not_ in school uniform.

But then, Lily and Cece both wondered; what were the Marauders doing there?

Not truly caring enough to get caught, Cece and Lily began to edge back towards the kitchens.

Too late. As one, it seemed, all four men were soon looking at the two girls standing in the middle of the hallway. Lily scanned her brain for something that would help her, anything… her mind came up blank. She and Cece were definitely screwed.

**\---**


	5. Loosening Inhibitions

  


**THANKS KATE, FOR EDITING THIS. :)**

_**Chapter 5: Loosening Inhibitions** _

_"Kick off your shoes and sit right down_  
Loosen up that pretty French gown  
Let me pour you a good long drink  
Ooh baby don't you hesitate...

_Just let your inhibitions run wild_  
The secret is about to unfold  
Upstairs before the night's too old..."  
-"Tonight's the Night (Gonna Be Alright)" by Rod Stewart

The thing you have to understand about getting caught by a professor while doing something wrong is that there really is nothing for you to do aside from take whatever punishment you're given and deal with the consequences.

Seventeen year old girls don't see it that way, of course.

Especially not slightly buzzed seventeen-year-old girls.

To them, where there's a will there's a way… or something as intelligent as that, but, try as she might, Lily could think of nothing that would get her and Cece out of this. Anything that she would say would be totally unbelievable. She sighed in defeat. It seemed inevitable that she and Cece would receive a detention. Lily opened her mouth, ready to ask when they should come for detention when Cece suddenly spoke.

"Hi Remus," Cece said, huskily.

Lily slowly turned her head and looked over at her friend in shock, her mouth agape. There on Cece's face, was the look Cece always wore when she was flirting and intended something to come of it. ‘ _Was she going to flirt with Remus Lupin to get them out of a detention?’_ Cece smiled brightly and confidently at Remus.

‘ _Apparently so.’_ Lily's mouth closed.

"It's been awhile since I've seen you around here," Cece continued.

" _Cecelia_?" Remus asked in shock. Lily looked him over. He was incredibly handsome as were all of the Marauders. His hair was darker than she had remembered; instead of it being a sandy blonde color it looked much closer to brown, and his eyes were wide in surprise. _Wait, were they glazed?!_ Lily could have laughed. _They were drunk!_ The Marauders, including one Professor James Potter, were all marvelously drunk. There would be no detention in store for the two girls if their own professor was drunk! Lily silently thanked the creators of alcohol.

"Call me Cece," Cece said. She shifted on her feet and leaned back against the wall behind her, holding the basket in front of her. Remus, Peter and Sirius followed her movements with their eyes while James continued to stare intently at Lily. Fighting to ignore him, Lily joined Cece at the wall when Cece discreetly motioned her over.

"You remember my friend, Lily Evans, right?" Cece asked motioning over in Lily’s direction. She was speaking to Remus of course, but Sirius and Peter each looked in Lily's direction. The looks they passed each other after seeing her were the same as the ones they had exchanged after seeing Cece. The only difference was that with Lily, there were smirks of recognition on their faces. When they turned back to look at Lily, they looked at her as if she was a treat, a prize. To them, Cece was a beautiful seventeen year old well within their reach of seduction. Although Lily held the same appeal, she was not for _their_ seduction. She was not _their_ prize. _She_ was the current infatuation of James Potter, not that he'd ever had many. There was Lisa Fen in fifth year, Kate McKinnon in seventh year and Angela Ranes just this year.

Not that James would ever admit that they'd been infatuations. To him, they were like any other girl he'd ever been interested in, but James Potter never _dated_ any other girls. He had fun with the rest of them, yes, but he'd never been a _boyfriend_ to any girl, except for those named above. James' friends knew that when James was truly interested in a girl he paid more attention to her - he did things she liked to do, truly listened to what she had to say and tried to spend more time with her. Peter had once tried to tell James in fifth year that Lisa was obviously different than anyone else who had previously caught James's attention (for however long) only to have James look at him like he was insane and reply, "She's just like any other girl, mate."

Since then, Remus, Peter and Sirius merely joked with each other whenever James was into another one of his "infatuations". Again, not very often.

This time, Sirius had to congratulate his friend, for this time Sirius couldn't fault James for falling for his student. Sirius's eyes traveled up Lily's body. "You _must_ be a transfer student."

"And why's that?" Lily asked.

"Because," Sirius finally looked up at her. When his gaze met hers Lily was strongly reminded of the night before, when she'd looked up at James and his eyes had stared down at her hungrily. "Because," he started again, swallowing and licking his lips, "I definitely would have remembered you if you had gone to Hogwarts in my time."

Lily smiled. "Ah, I see. Well, I've been going to Hogwarts all seven years. And for three of those, you were _most_ definitely there."

Sirius ignored that and threw a quick glance in James's direction. "You're Head Girl right?"

"Right."

The smile on Sirius's lips grew. He shot her a wink. "That means you've got those private rooms, doesn't it?"

"Yes," Lily replied. The mischievous smirk on Sirius's lips showed Lily, and anyone else who saw the smirk, exactly why he had been a Marauder.

"I think I've forgotten what those look like. Seeing as how you're Head Girl, you should give me the tour, shouldn't you?"

"Another time, Sirius, old _friend_."

Both Lily and Sirius looked at James. It was the first time he'd spoken since the two girls had been caught. While his statement was meant for Sirius, James was glaring dangerously at Lily. She quirked an eyebrow at him and then looked back at Sirius. He shrugged at her, "He's the professor".

"Ah," Lily looked at all four of the Marauders. They were quiet, each looking at something or someone. Now was the perfect time for her and Cece to make their escape.

Unfortunately, it seemed that wasn't meant to be.

As soon as Lily opened her mouth to say a quick goodbye, the shortest of the four, though by no means less cute, spoke.

"It might just be me… but I can't remember the uniforms ever looking quite like that."

_Ah shit! Now, there would definitely be questions._ Lily pinched Cece to draw her attention. Cece grimaced and nodded, showing that she understood that they were, once again, screwed.

"If they are in fact the uniforms, I must say that I'll be having a few words with Dumbledore about the unfairness of it all," Remus said. He was looking at Cece. "The number of times we suggested a change in the uniforms only to have him change it after we've left? It's not right."

"I think I'd sit in on that meeting," Sirius said.

James remained quiet. It would have been easy for Lily to forget he was even there, had he not been staring at her so intensely. She finally turned her head to look him in the eye and watched as he crossed his arms and looked Lily up and down, not at all in a subtle way either. She felt her entire body flare to life and she silently cursed James. When his eyes crossed over her face a small smile settled on his lips.

"May I ask why the two of you are out of uniform?" His tone was dry, almost amused. Lily nodded to herself, he was definitely drunk! That would explain why he wasn't just sending them off with a detention - why he instead wanted to torture them both with questions… as amusement. Well, drunk or not, she hoped she could "accidentally" kick him when he turned sober.

"Good question, mate!" Sirius said cheerfully. "I'd love to know so it can happen more often. Preferably when I'm around."

James shot Sirius a glare which Sirius dutifully ignored. James looked back at the girls, his eyebrow raised. He was waiting for their explanation.

"Well, you see-" Lily started.

"It was just a game really-" Cece laughed.

The two girls looked at each other and then Lily nodded confidently at James. "Exactly."

"Exactly what?" James asked.

"Exactly what Cece said," Lily replied. "We were playing a game."

"Ah. Well, why don't you come and explain the uh... _game_ to me, and Remus can escort Miss Walters back to her rooms."

Cece and Lily exchanged glances, effectively missing the looks that the other three Marauders were sending in James's direction.

"Well, we don't want to interrupt your little reunion… night… thing, so we can just come and see you in the morning after you have-"

"It wasn't really a suggestion," James interrupted.

"Yes, well," Lily looked at Cece out of the corner of her eye, "still… I think it'd be much better if we just met with you in the morning-"

" _Now_ , Lily." She almost cringed. He sounded incredibly mad, yet she had no idea why. She shared a look with Cece. Lowering her voice so no one but Lily could hear her, Cece asked, "Do you want me to go with you anyways?"

Lily shook her head, "No. He seems pretty upset. He probably just wants to yell at me about being Head Girl and my responsibilities. No reason that you should have to come and endure the pointless lecture. Just, take care of Aimee?"

Cece nodded. "I'll make up a reason to get dropped off at the Head common room. See you later?"

Lily nodded back and stepped away from the wall. She made her way towards James, stopping only when Sirius held his hand out to her. "It was wonderful to meet you, Lily Evans."

Lily shook his hand and she could have sworn she had heard someone growling. ‘ _Was there a dog nearby?’_ She looked behind her, but all she saw was a scowling James. He was staring so intently at Sirius that Sirius finally dropped Lily's hand, clapped his friend on the back and then moved to join Remus, Peter and Cece. Cece looked back only once at Lily before she was walking down the hallway with the other three.

Finally alone, Lily slowly looked up at James. He looked as if he was about to say something, paused, and then looked up and down the hallway. "Follow me."

Well, after that it was sort of hard for Lily _not_ to follow him, for after James spoke, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her down the hallway behind him. James was taller than Lily, by a lot more than six inches so his legs were obviously longer than hers which meant he could walk a hell of a lot faster than she could. Lily was more than grateful when James stopped in front of a painting. He mumbled the password, "antlers", and then pulled Lily through behind him. She heard the painting close and took a moment to look around her. They went up steps leading to a room that was obviously closed off to students and Lily could see why: it was James's bedroom. There was an open window off to the side, a dresser, a nightstand table next to a huge bed that took up a large portion of the room, a desk and then a door that obviously lead out of the room, and another door that Lily guessed led to James's bathroom.

‘ _But, why did James take me here instead of his office? It wasn't closer, was it?’_ Lily, too caught up in her musings of James's room, had not noticed James at all. He was leaning ever so casually against the wall. When Lily finally did look his way she was stunned with how heavily the attraction hit her. She began to wonder what it would be like to kiss him again. That was when the mantra started running through her head; _'He's your professor. He's your professor. He's your professor. He's your professor. He's your professor.'_

Just last night, Lily was sure that James stepped away from her because she was his student, and because he realized that it would be wrong and awkward. Now though, James didn't seem to care.

"You can't flirt with Sirius, you know."

Lily shivered at the deep tone of his voice. She licked her lips. "Why not?"

"Well for one," he moved off and away from the wall so he was standing in front of her, "if you flirt with Sirius then he'll take it to mean that you're interested in him and he'll have you in bed before you even have the chance to blink... and for another," James's hand suddenly came up to caress her cheek, "I don't want you to flirt with him."

"Oh?" Lily fought not to close her eyes and lean into his caress. She blinked and looked into his hazel eyes which, at the moment, were incredibly dark. "So who would you like me to flirt with then?" She closed her eyes when he tucked a stray piece of her hair behind her ear and she leaned into his hand… exactly what she hadn't wanted to do. ‘ _Oh, he was good_!’

"Me," was James's soft reply.

Her eyes were open again. "Well, that's a short list."

James's hand slid down her cheek to her jaw. One finger traced the line of it before his hand was sliding down her neck, and then down her chest. The shirt she was wearing let James's hand go down for awhile before he even touched fabric. When his hand slid down the valley of her breasts, she bit back a gasp and swore that her skin broke out in goose bumps. James didn't seem to have noticed. He fingered the tie of her shirt. "Where were you tonight, Lily?"

Another hand came up to caress Lily's other cheek. Then, his head lowered and his mouth was so close to Lily's cheek that she could feel his warm breath.

"I was with the..." Lily swallowed, "with the girls."

"Oh?" James pulled one of the ties. "Where'd you go?"

"Nowhere... just Hogs-Hogsmeade," Lily moaned when James sucked lightly on her earlobe, while also undoing the other tie. Her shirt fell open and James's hand was instantly underneath it.

"You're drunk, you know," Lily said. She tried to move away but James held her in place.

“Being drunk doesn't mean that I don't want you."

"No," Lily shook her head, "but it does mean that whatever you do tonight you'll most likely regret in the morning."

"Well now, I can safely promise you that I won't regret tonight." And with that James's mouth was on hers and every thought that objected to what was happening flew out of Lily's mind.

From that moment on it was no longer Professor and student; it was James and Lily. No titles, no rules, no lines to cross - just _them_ and their passion.

Lily's hands gripped the bottom of James's shirt and she quickly pulled it over his head. It broke their kiss for only a few seconds but to Lily it felt like an eternity before James's lips were on hers once more, and his hands were gripping her hips again. Lily's hands moved to explore James's bare skin, and she felt like she was receiving an electric shock every time she touched a new part of his body - his stomach, his chest, his back… she hardly even noticed when her own shirt fell to the floor and James lifted her up. As if it was instinct, Lily wrapped her legs around James's waist.

They both groaned at the friction it caused.

"James," Lily moaned when James pressed his hips firmly against hers. She leaned closer to him, trying to pull him back towards her but he leaned his head back to look at Lily's face. Her eyes were closed and her mouth was slightly parted. When James didn't move to kiss her again her eyes opened a little to look at him. He was staring straight at her.

"What?" It was a whisper on her lips. James shook his head, leaned forward and kissed Lily again, this time more gently than before. Then, he leaned back to look over her once again. She smiled at him and then leaned forward to return the gentle kiss. Her lips lingered longer on his and when she pulled back it was to only look him over and catch her breath before they both were fiercely kissing again. The gentleness was over. By now, they needed it too much to go slow.

In moments, Lily had James's pants and boxers down. His fingers slid underneath her skirt, and he pulled her underwear out from underneath it. She heard James mutter a spell, a charm. She knew which one it was. An infertility charm. There was no going back now. He paused to look into her eyes, as if asking if she was sure. She nodded, and pulled him closer to her. He bit down on her shoulder and thrust forward. She gasped and tightened her legs around him as he entered her.

He paused after that first thrust, looking at her, a small look of confusion in his eyes. Had she been a virgin, the pain from the bite on her shoulder would have overcome the pain from the breaking of her hymen. Yet, there was no such barrier. Lily, not taking notice of his hesitation, leaned forward kissing his neck. Her mouth slid up to his jaw and ran along his jaw line, finally stopping to bite down on his earlobe, draw it into her mouth and lightly start sucking it.

That one act drove James to throw all of his reasoning out the window. His hands ran up and down Lily’s sides. He began to move again and then all his reason disappeared; he was utterly and completely lost in Lily. The pace started slow and continued so until Lily was clutching James, digging half moons with her nails into his back. Immediately, the pace quickened.

Passion flared through Lily's blood. Her cries echoed throughout the room as she came and her entire mind went fuzzy and blank. A pounding echoed in her head and she tore her mouth from James'. She heard James moan a second later, and call out her name, his thrusts getting that much faster, that much harder. Then Lily's senses exploded for a second time and a wave of completion fell over both of them. James' thrusts slowed and then stopped completely. Lily relaxed, resting against the wall behind her. She smiled, exhaustion in her eyes, and then kissed James one last time. She waited, figuring he would drop her back to the ground where she'd put her shirt back on, grab her underwear and leave the room.

She was wrong.

James didn't let go of Lily. He held her tighter to him, if possible, and moved over to his bed. With one hand, James pulled the covers of his bed back and placed Lily in the middle of it. She stared up at him, bewildered while he removed her boots and skirt, which they hadn't bothered to remove earlier. James then set himself up next to her, pulling the covers over both of them. He looked her over, his head resting on one hand propped up by his elbow, a self-satisfied smile on his face.

Lily shifted and one of her hands went to James' chest, where she began to draw invisible objects; a quill, a circle, a broom, a cauldron… James simply watched her until he felt his arm start to tingle, as if it was about to go to sleep. He moved, propped himself up on the pillows and drew Lily towards him, so that she was half lying on top of him. She smiled tiredly at him.

They simply stayed silent for a few moments before James said, "I thought you were a virgin."

Lily blinked and leaned up and away from James. His arm tightened around her waist. "Why did you think that?"

James shrugged. His eyes bore into hers. "I just did."

"Is it a problem that I'm not?" Lily asked. James traced Lily's lips with his fingers. He shook his head, although Lily saw his jaw tense. She rolled her eyes. "I think I should go."

She turned to leave the bed, but James' grip tightened even more and he held her back from going. "No." He pulled her towards him, her back to his chest. "You're not leaving." He swept her hair away from her left shoulder and kissed the skin that was revealed. "It's not a problem."

Lily was still stiff until James' lips worked over her entire back and shoulders. A shiver went down Lily's spine and she allowed herself to relax against James once more. He drew her back down on the bed, wrapping an arm possessively around her waist. She shifted a little to get more comfortable and then finally closed her eyes.

She and James both knew that they had just crossed a huge boundary. It was okay to flirt with your professor or student and it was okay to _like_ said professor or student but to act on those feelings (though technically not against any sort of rules) would put said parties at a level of awkwardness should either party be hurt in said relationship.

Thinking about it now hurt Lily's head. She knew, though, that she and James would have to talk about it sooner or later. She hoped that it would be later. All she wanted now was to lie in James's arms.

James seemed to be thinking along the same lines, for he said, "We'll talk later. Right now I'm struggling to keep my eyes open."

"That's how I was this morning in your class," Lily joked. James' eyes were already closed, but he lightly pinched her side. She jerked and laughed, resting her head on James' extended arm. His other hand came up to run through her hair. Her mum used to do that when she was little and had trouble getting to sleep. It was different now, with James doing it. Her mum's fingers had always run lightly through her hair while James' fingers moved slowly, massaging as he went. It was no wonder that Lily's eyes slowly closed - again - and that within five minutes she was sleeping peacefully. James kept stroking her hair until he fell asleep fifteen minutes later.

\---

_An hour earlier…_

Jessica shifted near the fireplace. Aimee had thrown up twice since Lily and Cece had gone to the kitchens. Now, she was sleeping, with Cordy and Lacy constantly wiping her down with cool towels. Brett had said that Aimee would probably throw up as a result of the potion he had given her, but that it was good. If she was throwing up, it meant that she was getting the drug from her drink out of her system. Still, Jessica hated seeing her friend so sick. So, she turned her back away from it all and stared into the fire. It was Lacy who finally got her to turn around again.

"Jessica?" Lacy's voice was low, only a little higher than a whisper.

Jessica quickly turned around. "Yes?"

Lacy nodded to the bucket of water she and Cordy had been using to dip the towels in. "Do you think you could empty out the water and refill the bucket?"

"Sure," Jessica pulled the bucket up and made her way up the stairs to Lily's room and the attached bathroom. She quickly emptied the bucket and then filled it back up with cold water. On her way out of the room she grabbed a few towels just in case and then made her way back down the stairs, careful not to spill any of the water. When she reached the common room it was to see Cordy waving her over.

"What happened?" Jessica asked. She set the bucket down and turned to face the sofa. Aimee was incredibly pale but was at least awake and sitting up. Lacy was sitting near her, her arms spread out in case Aimee collapsed.

Aimee pushed Lacy's arms away. "I'm okay now."

Jessica breathed a sigh of relief. "Good. We were worried."

Aimee took the glass of water Cordy held out for her. Her hands shook a little before she steadied them and took a sip of the water. She closed her eyes and sighed. "I'm a little tired."

"You should go back to sleep then," Lacy said, moving off of the sofa and propping up the pillows.

Aimee shook her head. "I'm hungry."

Jessica frowned. "You're hungry? But… you just threw up. _Twice_!"

"Which means my stomach is empty… I need some food," Aimee replied.

Jessica shook her head. "You are so weird, Chang."

"Does that mean that you'll go get me food from the kitchens?" Aimee asked. "I promise to share."

Jessica highly doubted that Aimee would even be awake by the time she got back from the kitchens. While Aimee said that she was okay, Brett had said that she'd be pretty exhausted and would most likely need to rest for the remainder of the night and the whole of the next day. Which meant that she didn't need to be wandering around the halls of Hogwarts, which is exactly what she'd do if Jessica didn't go and get her food from the kitchens.

"Sure, I'll go. What do you want?"

Aimee smiled, albeit weakly, and drank some more water. "Maybe some biscuits and soup?"

"All right." Jessica smiled back and looked at Cordy and Lacy. "What about you two?"

"Nothing for me," Lacy said.

Cordy bit her lip, thinking. "Some chocolate cake?"

Jessica nodded. "I'll be right back." She was moving towards the door when Cordy called out, "And some milk!"

"Sure, sure," Jessica said. She pulled the door open and stepped out, pausing when Cordy yelled, "Ice cream too!"

She sighed and turned back around. "What else?"

Cordy paused. "Nothing. Cake, ice cream, milk… I'm set."

Aimee snorted. Cordy rolled her eyes in Aimee's direction. "If you wanted some, all you had to do was ask."

"If I throw up cake or ice cream it'll ruin me for life. I happen to love junk food of all sorts," Aimee replied.

"I thought you said you felt okay!" Lacy stated.

"I do. It's just a hypothetical situation," Aimee said. At Lacy's skeptical look Aimee threw her hands up. "I promise that I feel fine."

Lacy looked back at Jessica and nodded in Aimee's direction. "Hurry back okay? She's too stubborn to go back to sleep if she hasn't eaten," Lacy then shot a look at Cordy, "and if Cordy doesn't eat soon she'll more than likely eat Aimee."

Cordy sputtered while Aimee laughed.

"I would _not_!" Cordy protested.

Jessica smiled and left the room, feeling happy. Aimee would be fine if she was hungry and ready to eat food. Plus, she was sitting up and talking and laughing… yes, she was going to be fine.

As Jessica made her way through the halls she thanked Lacy's mother, Sally Prewett, for being a mediwitch. Lacy had learned everything about illnesses and such from her mother and hoped to become a mediwitch after Hogwarts. During the winter, all of Hogwarts was usually living in the hospital wing. None of the girls liked going to the hospital wing for anything, especially since Madame Pomfrey usually wanted you to stay in the hospital wing for at least a night - no matter how small the illness. Lacy kept the others out of the hospital wing for colds and such through remedies she made or her mother would send her. In times like these, it was nice to have a friend such as Lacy.

Jessica knew that she wanted to be a professional Quidditch player after Hogwarts. It made her happy and while she knew that the rest of her friends would be doing something more beneficial to the wizarding world, she just couldn't see herself sitting behind a desk for the rest of her life. Plus, she hated social climbing, which is all she'd do if she got a job at the Ministry.

Of course there were other options. She could become an Auror, but it would take years before Jessica would even be considered a high level Auror. Lily often said that she'd make a good Auror but-

Jessica slowed in her walk to the kitchens. Lily. She and the others had completely forgotten that Cece and Lily had gone to the kitchens earlier in the night. They'd been gone for awhile. Jessica began to hurry again, hoping that Lily and Cece hadn't been caught.

\---

Cece bit her lip, and glanced around the corridor she and the other three Marauders were standing in. _This wasn't right._ She'd convinced the Marauders to take a different turn, instead of continuing on to the Gryffindor Tower. She'd hoped that she would be able to remember how to make her way back to the Head common room on her own but she wasn't used to walking to the Head common room just yet. The way was still unfamiliar to her. Now, she was utterly lost.

"Well, look at this, it's another dead end," Peter stated. He said it so casually that it made Cece raise a brow.

"You do remember that we attended Hogwarts for seven years?" Remus asked, seeing her questioning look.

Cece crossed her arms. "Yes."

"So you also remember that we know every hallway in Hogwarts," Remus continued.

" _Yes_ ," Cece said slowly. She had no idea where this was going.

"You aren't trying to get to the Gryffindor common room. So, where are you really trying to go?" Remus asked.

"Are you telling me," Cece began, "that we've been walking around for a half an hour for no reason at all?"

"No," Sirius said, "we've been trying to figure out where you're trying to go."

"So why didn't you just ask?" Cece said.

Peter looked at Sirius who looked at Remus. Remus turned his gaze on Cece. "Well that would have taken the fun out of this, wouldn't it?"

Cece tightened her grip on the basket. "This is _ridiculous_! How do I get to the Head common room?"

"What's at the Head common room?" Peter asked.

"My date," Cece replied sarcastically. Still, Remus cocked his head and shot an amused look her way.

"Gryffindor?" Sirius asked.

"Ravenclaw," Cece corrected.

"As amusing as this is," Remus interrupted, "we do still have to drop Cece off somewhere."

"The Head common room," Cece said firmly.

"Well, see, James told us to take you back to the Gryffindor common room," Sirius said. "It'd be wrong of us to take you to the Head common room instead."

Cece sighed. "Okay fine. What will it take for you to show me the way to the Head common room?"

"Well for starters, you could tell us where you _really_ were tonight," Remus said. There was a definite smirk on his face, one that Cece didn't remember from when he tutored her. Not that he'd had anything to smirk about then. At least not with Cece.

Cece shifted, and put one hand on her hip. "What do you mean? Lily and I already said that we were playing a game."

"And no one believed you," Peter stated.

"Why not?" Cece asked.

"Don't change the subject," Sirius said, "just answer the question."

"And you won't tell James?" Cece asked.

"The good professor won't hear a thing from any one of us," Sirius promised. He grinned. "Now… the truth."

Cece paused for a second, then tucked her hair behind her ear. "We were at Skylar's."

There was silence among the Marauders. Peter was the one to break it. "The club in Hogsmeade?"

"Yes," Cece said.

"How'd you get in?" Sirius asked.

Cece began to move down the hall. "You said that if I told you where we'd been, you'd show me the way to the Head common room."

"We did say that but, we also want to know more and seeing as how you have to rely on us to get you around, and not get caught I might add, you'll have to answer our questions," Remus said. "So… how'd you get in?"

"We didn't sneak in," Cece said.

"Of course not," Sirius said. He began to lead the others through the hallways. Cece noticed that Remus had his hands casually in his pockets.

"Lily and I became friends with Brett Skylar in fourth year," Cece said. She turned left, following Sirius. "And we've been going there ever since."

"Fourth year," Sirius remarked. He shook his head and looked at Remus, a frown on his face. "Unbe-bloody-lievable."

"Why?" Cece asked. "When did you four manage to get in?"

Sirius snorted. "The end of fourth year."

"The beginning of fifth year," Remus corrected.

Cece looked between the two. "Oh-kay."

Peter smiled. "We spent the better part of the second half of the summer before our fifth year trying to get into Skylar's. It was because we were so persistent that they let us in. It was pity, really."

"If we'd known that they let females in so easily, we could've saved weeks of our time," Remus mumbled.

Cece rolled her eyes. "We were just trying to hide from Filch."

"We tried that excuse," Peter said, "it didn't work."

"Sorry?" Cece offered. She stepped over a puddle near Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. She almost stepped into another by accident, but Remus pulled her towards him and out of the way. He took the basket from her hands and began to carry it for her. She mumbled her thanks before trying to catch up with Peter and Sirius, farther ahead of them.

"Someone's coming," Peter stated.

"Filch?" Cece asked.

Sirius shook his head. "Filch limps. This person doesn't."

"So, look around the corner," Cece said.

"I was going to," Sirius replied. He didn't even wait before peeking around the corner. He relaxed immediately which let the others know it was no one. Or at least no one who could get Cece (or any of the others) into trouble.

"Who is it?" Peter asked.

"We graduated too early, mates," Sirius breathed. "They didn't make them like this when we were in school."

"What are you talking about?" Peter asked. He leaned around the corner and stilled. " _Oh_."

Cece leaned around him to catch a glimpse of whoever Sirius and Peter were so captivated by. She immediately jumped out, avoiding the hand Remus sent out to grab her. She called, "Jessica!"

From behind her she heard Peter ask, "Is this supposed to be hide and seek? We go through the halls of Hogwarts to find all of her and Lily's friends?"

Cece grinned and watched her friend slow down, surprised to see her and then hurry the rest of the way.

\---

"Cece!" Jessica greeted. "I've been looking for you and Lily! Aimee was hungry so I…" Jessica cut off once she turned the corner and saw the three Marauders.

"So one comes back and the others follow?" Jessica joked.

"Another of your friends, then?" Remus asked Cece.

"This is Jessica," Cece said.

"I'm Sirius," Sirius stated, flashing Jessica a charming smile.

"I know," Jessica replied, waving away the introduction as if he had just told her two plus two equaled four. She looked around and then stood on her tiptoes to try and see around the three tall men. "Where's Lily?"

"With James," Sirius answered.

"Why?"

"We got caught on our way back from the kitchens," Cece explained. She nodded to the basket in Jessica's own hands. "Apparently you went there too."

"Aimee was hungry," Jessica said.

"How is she?" Cece asked eagerly. With everything that had happened she had forgotten that Aimee was sick.

Jessica sighed and shrugged. "She's hungry right now. She's also pretty tired. _Plus,_ she has a detention tomorrow night," Jessica said. She raised an eyebrow at Cece. "You didn't get another detention for tonight, did you?"

"I don't know yet," Cece said. "James had Lily stay behind to talk with him."

There was a snicker from Peter. Jessica turned around to look at him. "What?"

Sirius elbowed Peter, who coughed to cover up his laughter. "Nothing."

"Do you all always go out after hours at night?" Remus asked, changing the subject.

Jessica chose to ignore him. "Should we wait for Lily or head back to the common room?"

What Cece would have said, Jessica never knew. For at that exact moment a high pitched voice called out, " _Congratulations, you are a winner! Congratulations, you are a winner! Congratulations, you are a winner! Congratulations, you are a winner! Congratulations, you are a winner!_ "

Sirius plunged his hand into his pocket and pulled out a piece of parchment. He stared disbelieving at it and then grinned manically. This time, any cough Peter might have conjured up wouldn't have covered his laughter. Remus looked highly amused himself. Jessica and Cece merely stared blankly at the three.

Sirius quickly put the parchment back into his pocket before Jessica and Cece could read what it said. "I think it'd be better if we escorted you to the Head dormitory. James tends to…uh… lecture for a long period of time."

Remus and Sirius ushered the two girls through the halls, with Peter still chuckling behind them.

"Are they high?" Jessica whispered, walking a little bit farther away from Sirius.

"I'm beginning to think so," Cece replied. She cast a glance behind her, and saw the looks of complete amusement that passed between the three Marauders. "Either that or they're drunk."

Jessica snorted. "Or they're just completely insane."

Cece couldn't help herself; she laughed.

\---


	6. Morning After

  


**Here’s where the editing stopped. So if it’s crap... Meh.**

_**Chapter Six: Morning After** _

_There’s got to be a morning after  
_ \- “Morning After” by Maureen McGovern

Lily floated on her back in the lake, trying to decide whether the clouds directly above her resembled a cauldron or her Aunt Daisy. After much consideration she came to a conclusion; definitely the cauldron. With a push, Lily once again sailed across the lake. She’d been doing this for two hours… and she had yet to cover the entire lake.

“Lily!”

Lily turned at the yell. Beneath a tree near the shore stood her friends - all five of them. She grinned weakly and swam over. She climbed onto the shore and moved towards the others. Cordy held a blanket out towards her and Lily rushed into it.

“Thanks,” Lily said. Cordy simply smiled in return. On the ground surrounding the tree, a few blankets were set and on the blankets were food and drinks. As soon as Lily had joined them, the others sat down. It took Lily only a moment to do the same.

“What is all of this?” Lily asked, motioning to the picnic.

“We saw you swimming about an hour ago. We figured we might as well join you,” Lacy said.

Lily ignored Lacy’s curious gaze, instead looking around the group. “Aimee,” Lily smiled, spotting her friend. “How do you feel?”

Aimee, though pale, looked better than she had the previous day. “Better. Much better than I look.”

“Good,” Lily said. She reached over to hug Aimee one armed. “I was worried.”

“I’m fine,” Aimee stated firmly. “Or I will be once the psycho nurse over here backs off.” She nodded in Lacy’s direction who scowled at Aimee. She opened her mouth to snap something back when Cece reached over to ‘discreetly’ pinch her. Lacy stayed silent.

“So…” Cece said, her voice high and excited as if she wanted to just blurt something out.

Lily reached for a roll and took a large bite.

“So, Lily,” Cece tried again.

“Just say it, Cece,” Lily sighed. She took another bite off of the roll. “Whatever you want to say, just say it.”

“Lily, what happened last night?” Jessica asked, cutting right to the chase.

“I mean, we _know_ what happened,” Cordy said quickly, “because well… you never came back last night, so we just guessed-”

Lily nodded. “You guessed right.”

“Hey,” Lacy said quietly. She nudged Lily. “Are you okay? What happened?”

Lily sighed and attempted to untangle her wet hair. She tried hard to not look at the others. “Everything happened… and I don’t know if I’m okay. I think I might be.”

Jessica scooted closer to Lily. She gripped her shoulder. “He didn’t… _hurt_ you, did he?”

Lily shook her head. “Of course not. He was perfect.”

Cece and Cordy exchanged worried and confused glances. Cordy cleared her throat. “Then what’s wrong?”

Lily’s hands dropped and she sighed. “It was just so… perfect. _He_ was so perfect - and so sweet.”

“No one’s perfect,” Lacy said lightly.

Lily shook her head. “He was. After you left, Cece, we went to his room and it was so weird. We rushed through it—I mean my bloody boots were still on—but I’ve never been with someone like that and felt like every part of me was about to explode. I know I’m explaining this wrong but it was just so _good_. You know?”

Jessica simply stared at her, wide eyed. “I have _no_ idea what you’re talking about.”

With a little laugh, Lily leaned against Jessica and sighed. “After we… geez, I don’t want to say ‘fucked’, it seems so crude… but it’s what it was.”

“Did he say that?” Aimee asked.

Lily blinked. “No, I actually didn’t let him say too much on the subject. He was wonderful, really. After we, well - _shagged_ , he picked me up and carried me to his bed. He wrapped his arms around me and we just… cuddled.” Lily smiled. “ _Cuddled_.”

“You’re right, that’s weird,” Jessica joked. She shook Lily. “So what’s got you in this weird funk?”

“When I woke up,” Lily began, “I thought it’d be best if I just left and we forgot it ever happened. He will still be my professor for the rest of the year, you know… anyway, he woke up while I was leaving and asked why I wasn’t staying to shower with him.”

“Did you?” Cordy asked the same time Lacy said, “Wow… that _is_ really sweet.”

“During the shower, he washed my hair and we ended up going at it in the stall,” Lily replied.

“He washed your hair?” Cordy asked. “ _No way_.”

Jessica threw her hands up, mockingly. “Aggressive, sexy, washes your hair… life hates me.”

“ _In_ the shower?” Cece asked, her eyebrows raised. “Sexy.”

“I’m still not seeing why you’re in this weird funk place,” Jessica stated. “So far it sounds too good to be true.”

“Exactly,” Lily said. “I’ve slept with him three times and-”

“Three?” Cece interrupted. “There was the first time with your boots on and then the shower, right?”

“Well we woke up sometime between the two…” Lily mumbled, her cheeks reddening. “Anyway, that’s not the point! I slept with him three times and every time was just as good as the last…”

“So then, what’s the problem?” Jessica asked. “Apparently, he’s aggressive, yet sweet _and_ he’s wonderful in bed. He seems dreamy to me.”

“Dreamy? This is the _seventies_ , Jessica!” Cordy stated. Jessica rolled her eyes.

“If I could have a one night stand with _James Potter_ , I’d-” Aimee’s soft ‘oh’ cut Cece off. Cece turned to look at her, worry on her face. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Aimee said quickly. She kept looking at Lily. “That’s what’s got you down, right? That it was a one night stand?”

“Oh!” Jessica whispered.

Lily nodded and sighed. “I don’t know how to handle this. _I_ _knew_ that when I shagged James that I was risking a lot and that it’d only last one night. I _know_ I should be mature and pretend as if what happened between us doesn’t bother me; but when you are attracted to someone—it shows.”

“Oh sweetie,” Cordy mumbled. She rubbed Lily’s arm comfortingly. “One night stands are never easy. Especially if you actually like the person you’ve had said one night stand with and want more.”

“I don’t know if I want more,” Lily replied. “I just know that pretending that something didn’t happen is going to be hard. How am I supposed to act around him now?”

“You’ve handled your past one night stands splendidly,” Jessica offered.

Lily shook her head. “I’ve only had two one night stands before and I’ve never seen them on a day to day basis.”

Lacy frowned. “Maybe you should talk to him Lily. Maybe he feels the same way you do.”

“No, I can’t!” Lily replied. “It would accomplish nothing. I can’t say ‘Look James, I feel really weird about last night because I can’t hide my attraction to you which is making it that much harder. Do you feel the same? What do you want to do about it?’”

“Why not?” Lacy asked.

“It just… couldn’t work. He’d assume I was some love sick school girl who couldn’t handle a one night stand-”

“Well, it’s sort of looking like that,” Jessica interrupted.

Lily screamed in frustration and fell back onto the blanket. “This is so ridiculous.”

Aimee smiled softly and took a drink from the cup in her hands (most likely containing the tea Lacy had prepared for her earlier). “You’re starting to sound sort of love sick to me.”

Lily sat up. “I don’t love him!”

“Why not?” Aimee asked, teasing her friend. Lily didn’t notice the teasing tone and waved her hands around. “I’ve known him for a week… technically, I don’t even know him. I mean… I don’t even know what his middle name is or what kind of wand he has-”

“Oh yes you do!” Cece broke in, laughing.

Lily’s jaw tensed and through grated teeth, she said, “ _You know what I mean_!”

Cece coughed and cleared her throat. “Sorry.”

Cordy frowned at her sister then turned back to her friend. “Look, Lily, I’ve had a few one night stands and I know what you’re going through. Granted,” she said when Lily opened her mouth, “I’ve never had a one night stand with my professor, but all one night stands are generally the same. Now, there are two ways to go with this. Either you can act like it never happened, which we’ve already established is going to be pretty hard, or you can think about last night as a night of fun and good times. If it helps, try to think of it as this really, really great guy who is awful at relationships and only good in bed. That way, when you see him and want more from him - relationship wise - you’ll remember he’s a bad boyfriend and keep on going through the day.”

“Number one,” Lily ticked off one finger, “I don’t want a relationship with him. I’m attracted to him, yes. Do I want to marry him and have his children? No. So, it’s established that there will be no relationship.” Lily ticked off a second finger. “Number two… does that _actually_ work for you?”

Lacy laughed. “I’m curious to know too, Cordy.”

Cordy tossed a roll in Lacy’s direction. “Fine, you know… the next time you want my advice I won’t be giving it to you.”

“Still, she has a point,” Cece said.

“Thanks, sis,” Cordy replied, brightening.

“What’s the point, then?” Jessica asked.

Cece chewed a bite of chocolate. “Well, Lily does have to make a decision about what she’s going to do with Professor Sexy-”

“ _Professor Sexy_?” Aimee interrupted.

“-and whatever she decides, it has to be pretty fast,” Cece finished.

“Why?” Lily asked.

Cece pointed to where Lily’s clothes lay nearby. Among them was a black robe. “My guess is that that robe isn’t yours… and that you’re going to have to return it.”

Lily cursed under her breath and grabbed the robe. “It’s James’… I sort of took it on my way out.”

“Token of last night?” Jessica joked.

Lily shot her a glare. “ _No_ , but it’s not like I could walk about Hogwarts dressed as I was last night. I am Head Girl, you know.”

“Right,” Lacy said.

“Of course,” Jessica added, a grin on her face.

Lily stood up, holding the blanket tightly around her. “As friends… you all suck.” She turned swiftly, walking back up to the castle.

Cordy relaxed back on the blanket. “She loves us.”

“Totally,” Aimee agreed. “Hey, hand me one of those chocolate strawberries!”

“Aimee, you shouldn’t be eating those just yet. You need to stick to soups.”

“Lacy,” Aimee growled, “if you don’t give me that strawberry I’m going to-”

“What? You’re weaker than I am right now!”

“Lacy, _please_! I was the one who was drugged last night… I think I deserve a damn chocolate strawberry!”

Still close enough to hear her friends, Lily smiled and shook her head. Okay, so maybe the day wasn’t so bad after all.

\---

“Prongs, my man, I do have to give you credit. I don’t think I’ve ever been quite so surprised in my life as when that parchment went off.”

Leaning on his elbows, James lifted himself off of the bed to glare at his friend. “Padfoot, you’ve talked of nothing else but Lily since you’ve been here. Find a new topic.”

Remus laughed. James turned his glare on him. “You too, Moony. In fact, I seem to remember you bringing the topic up.”

“I did _not_ bring the topic up. I merely asked where Lily was,” Remus defended. He exchanged an amused glance with Sirius. “Besides, we promised Wormtail we’d bring him back details.”

“Where is he again?” James asked.

“Nice change of topic,” Sirius snorted. “He has to cover the office by himself again today. Moony and I are bringing him lunch later.”

“You’re awful nice girlfriends,” James replied.

Sirius laughed. “You really are in a bad mood for someone who just spent the whole night shagging.”

James groaned. “Don’t remind me.”

Remus and Sirius stopped laughing and quickly looked at each other. With a nod to Remus, Sirius hopped out of his seat. Remus, following him, stood up from his chair and crossed to James’ bed. He leaned back against the bedpost, crossing his arms. Sirius, instead of standing nearby, jumped onto the bed next to James and immediately leaped into the questioning. “So, are you saying that it was bad? That she was bad?”

“Not that it’s any of your business-”

“It is our business,” Remus interrupted, “we’re your mates.”

Sirius nodded. “Besides, I won the bet. If you truly didn’t enjoy last night, then it wouldn’t be fair of me, as your mate, to take my winnings. I’ll just sit in on your class, I won’t even be the center of attention.”

Remus quirked an eyebrow. “Kind of you, Padfoot.”

Sirius smirked and shrugged. “I do what I can for my friends.” He turned back to James and flicked his shoulder. “So… what happened?”

“You know what happened,” James spat, sitting up in the bed. He leaned back against the headboard. “So when are you two going to leave?”

“She was _that_ bad?” Sirius asked.

“You wouldn’t think so, to look at her,” Remus said.

“Go away,” James replied.

“How was she bad?” Sirius asked.

“Inquiring minds want to know,” Remus added.

Frustrated, James threw his hands into the air. “ _She wasn’t bad_!”

“What?” Sirius frowned, confused. “What do you mean?”

“ _She. Wasn’t. Bad._ ”

Remus ran a hand through his hair. “What do you mean by that? She wasn’t bad as in she was good, or she wasn’t bad as in she wasn’t bad?”

“And you’re the smartest one among us, Moony?” Sirius joked. He looked back at James, completely serious. “Honestly, mate… you’re being crazy. What happened? Could you not… you know-”

James stared at him blankly. “Could I not… what?”

Sirius motioned with his hands. “You _know_ … get it up-”

“Bloody hell, Sirius!” James jumped off the bed and began to pace the room. “Of course that wasn’t the problem.”

“So you admit that there was a problem?” Remus nodded and uncrossed his arms. “Lay it on us. Were you not able to… _please_ her?”

“Why am I the one who made the mistake? Why couldn’t she have not pleased me?” James snapped.

“Well, did she not please you?” Sirius asked. “We have no idea what’s the matter if you won’t talk to us about it.”

James shook his head. “It was great.”

“It was?” Sirius ran a hand through his hair. “You know, it doesn’t sound like it was great.”

James’ jaw clenched and he said, very slowly, “ _It. Was._ ”

“All right then, mate,” Sirius said, not at all convinced. “When you feel like telling us the truth, you know where we’ll be.”

“Here?” James asked sarcastically. At Sirius’ raised eyebrow, James sighed. “Sorry,” he apologized.

Remus looked between his two friends; Sirius who was staring intently at James and James who didn’t look like he was about to budge anytime soon. James ran his hands over his face, as if he was tired. He sat back onto the bed. “Sorry, Padfoot, I’m only grouchy because I have to be an actual professor. Do you know I have papers to grade? Honestly!”

Sirius laughed. “That’s why you got the teaching gig and I didn’t. I wouldn’t assign homework. You should actually try that you know.”

James tilted his head, as if thinking. “Think I could get away with just assigning it to the Slytherins?”

“You’d probably have to assign it to the Ravenclaws as well. If they don’t get homework, they’ll probably complain,” Sirius replied.

“True,” James grinned at his friend. He made a poor attempt of pushing Sirius off of the bed. “ _Now_ will you both leave me to grade my papers?”

Remus grabbed his coat. “You know, if you’re always this nice to us when we visit you we might not do it anymore.”

James closed his eyes. “Hold on, let me just picture that for a second…”

Sirius threw his pillow at James and got off of the bed. He took his coat from Remus and shrugged it on. “Have a wonderful afternoon Prongs, dear.”

James fell back on the bed. “You bug me.”

Sirius grinned cheekily, winked at James and headed for the door. “See you Tuesday. That is your block class right?”

“With the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws,” James replied, his tone dry.

Sirius saluted him and threw the door open.

\---

Lily bit her lip and peered down the hallway again. No one was there. She stepped out from around the corner and stopped in front of the painting, readying herself for the upcoming conversation. She’d have to seem completely casual, as if she always stopped by her professor’s personal rooms to return their robes. She didn’t want, in any way, to come off as a lovesick school girl. She needed to make it clear that she was just returning his robe. Nodding, Lily firmly said, “Antlers.”

The portrait swung open and Lily made her way up the stairs. At the top of the stairs, Lily stood in front of the door with her hand raised in a fist and ready to knock. Before she could get the chance, the door was swung open and Lily stood face to face with Sirius Black.

They stared at each other for a moment before Sirius smiled at her. “Well, well… it’s been awhile since we’ve last seen each other.”

“Yeah,” Lily nodded. “Years.” She spotted Remus behind Sirius and held out the robe. “Listen, could you just give this to James-”

“Let me get him for you,” Sirius said.

“Oh no, you really don’t-” Lily began. She sighed when Sirius turned away from the door and called James’ name. She looked down at the robe in her hands and then up at Remus, who was looking at her. She smiled in an awkward way.

Sirius turned back around. “Have a nice night?”

Lily froze. She didn’t know whether to be embarrassed or angry. “Actually,” Lily replied with a slight chill in her words, “yes. You?”

“Truly amazing,” Sirius said, either not noticing her tone or completely ignoring it. Remus coughed from behind him.

“Wonderful,” Lily stated. She held the robe out to him. “Could you just give this to James? I left the girls down at the lake and I need to get back-”

The door was swung open further and James was standing there, by Sirius’ side. Lily couldn’t read his expression, but at that moment she didn’t know whether she wanted to know if he was happy to see her or not. She didn’t wait to think about it and instead passed the robe over to James. He took it and then looked down at it, as if not knowing what it was.

Lily took a step back. “I forgot that I took that this morning. I figured there was no other good time to return it. So, now that I have… I’m going to go and let you guys get back to visiting or whatever.”

She turned quickly but didn’t even make it down the first step when Sirius had gotten a hold of her wrist and was swinging her back around to face them.

Sirius smiled at Lily. “You know, we were actually leaving so why don’t you just stay here.”

Remus coughed again. Sirius turned to look at him. “Something caught in your throat, Remus?”

“I think it might just be your tact, Sirius,” Remus replied. He smiled sympathetically at Lily. “But we really were just leaving.”

“Oh no… really, you don’t have to because,” Lily pulled at her wrist, though Sirius refused to budge, “I really do have to go.”

“Nonsense. It’s Saturday!” Sirius pulled Lily, swinging her in James’ direction. That was when he let go and Lily went flying towards James who - luckily - caught her before she could fall and lose even more of her dignity. Sirius didn’t wait around for Lily to argue, though. He pulled on Remus’ coat and before Lily knew it, they were gone. And she was left with James.

Quickly, Lily stepped out of James’ hold and turned to face him. “Sorry about that,” she said, motioning to the steps where Remus and Sirius had just fled. “I didn’t mean to drive them off.”

“You didn’t,” James said. “They were just leaving when you got here.”

“But I shouldn’t have just dropped by,” Lily said quickly. “I just didn’t know how to get your robe back to you without a whole bunch of other people around.”

James nodded and gestured with the robe. “Thanks.”

Lily nodded. “Yeah, so… I uh… I better go and I’ll just see you tomorrow. At the detention… thing.”

“You don’t have to go,” James said when Lily began to turn around. At first, she thought he was talking about the detention, but something told her that that wasn’t it. She slowly turned back to look at him. He shrugged. “You can stay if you want to.”

Lily fingered her jacket and bit down on her bottom lip, gently. She looked up at him, wishing his expression was more open, as it had been the previous night. She ran a hand through her hair and shook her head. “That probably isn’t the best idea, considering…”

James simply stared at her for a moment before moving. “Of course, ‘considering’. Well then, thanks for my robe, Lily.”

“You’re welcome,” Lily replied. She tilted her head, watching him and wondering what was going on with him. Before, when he’d invited her to stay he’d had a soft sort of tone and now… it was like he was angry with her. With a slight jump, Lily turned back for the stairs. She didn’t say goodbye to him, nor did he to her but she could feel his eyes on her back the entire way down the stairs and she didn’t feel safe to relax until she was past the portrait and around the corner.


	7. It's Magic

  


_**Chapter Seven: It’s Magic** _

_So much that I wanna do,_  
When I dream I'm alone with you  
It's magic  
You want me to leave it there,  
Afraid of a love affair  
-“Take A Chance On Me” by ABBA

**You look bored.**

_I am bored._

**How is that possible? You have eye candy.**

_So do you._

**I don’t know what’s underneath the clothes. You do.**

_It makes this so much worse, believe me._

In the desk next to Lily, Jessica raised an eyebrow.

**Well, it’s probably just as hard for him.**

_Does he_ look _bothered to you?_

Jessica looked up from the parchment to James. He was sitting at his desk at the front of the classroom, grading papers and reading over essays. He’d been in that same position since the six girls had arrived two hours earlier. He’d looked up at Lily once before assigning them to copy down as many chapters from their Defense books as they could for five hours and then he hadn’t looked at her since.

**So he doesn’t want to make it obvious that he likes you. It’s the professor/student relationship deal. Is he supposed to make puppy dog eyes at you?**

_I’d appreciate the effort._

Jessica rolled her eyes.

**I thought you didn’t even like him.**

_Whoa, I never said that I didn’t like him. Just that I didn’t_ love _him. Besides, I get it, it was one night. I’m over it._

Jessica raised an eyebrow.

**Really?**

_Shut up and do your work._

\---

Lily twirled her quill in her hand and stared blankly out of the window. She’d stopped copying down the Defense book ten minutes ago - there was only so much you could write before your hand began to cramp. Outside, a few third years were laughing and playing with a hovering plate. They’d float it in the direction of one of their friends and said friend would have to stop it and then send it spinning back towards someone else. So far, the plate had not gotten past any of the friends. Five minutes later, Lily tilted her head as the plate flew over one of the girls. The girl turned, flung her wand up, shouted a few words and grinned when the plate froze. With another wave of her wand the plate was flying back towards her friends.

Lily yearned to be outside, or at least outside of this classroom. She turned, looking around at her friends. Aimee and Lacy were still copying the assignment from the book, Jessica and Cordy were passing a paper ball between them with no notice from James, and Cece was fast asleep, her book perched up to block her from James’ view, not that he was looking. His gaze was still on the papers in front of him. Lily sighed, shook her head, and lay her head down on her hands. She turned so that she was still watching the students playing outside. Minutes later, Lily’s eyelids were drooping and after a few more blurry plate passes, they finally fell shut.

_\---_

_Lily felt a warmth on her neck and a slight sting, as if she had been lightly bitten. She groaned and shifted, tilting her head to the side. The warmth slid down to the pulse point on her neck, before she felt another bite. She shook her head and opened her eyes, allowing a few minutes for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. Lily smiled slightly as James came into view, right above her._

“ _Hi,” he whispered, bending over her to place another kiss on her neck._

_Lily moaned, smiling. “Hi.” She moved her head so that his lips fell on hers. Her hands slid up into his hair, pulling him deeper into the kiss. James moved one leg in between both of hers, edging up. Lily hissed as his knee rubbed against her._

“ _Sleep okay?” James asked._

“ _Perfectly,” Lily replied, arching up. Her hands ran up and down James’ back, massaging him and at times, digging her nails into him. “What time is it?”_

“ _Dunno,” James kissed her again. “Why?”_

_Lily sighed as James’ mouth left her neck and moved downwards. The sheets fell away as James continued downward, his mouth leaving a searing trail on her skin. “I don’t want to worry the girls.”_

“ _It’s still early,” James said. He lifted his head, drawing on her skin. He grinned up at her. “I’ll have you back by curfew.”_

“ _I think that I’m way past curfew,” Lily replied, her voice husky and her eyes darkened with lust. She pulled James back up to her, drawing him into a burning kiss. A slim leg wrapped itself around his waist, and Lily pulled herself up to him, her naked chest meeting his. Her skin tingled as it went from the cold air to a warm body. Smiling against James’ lips, Lily pushed on his shoulders, flipping him so that she was on top of him; straddling him. She pressed kisses to his neck and made her way down his chest. Lily nipped his chest lightly, then continued down towards his stomach. James gripped her shoulders as she neared his abs, his fingers holding on to her tightly. Lily’s eyes met his, and she smiled at his tense jaw before sitting and relaxing on top of his thighs._

_Her eyes still locked with James’, Lily moved slowly against him for several moments before James suddenly tensed beneath her, grabbed her arms and flipped her onto her back. Lily brought her hand up to his cheek, caressing it, turning the rougher moment gentle. Her eyes searched his before James leant down, bringing his lips to hers. The kiss was suffocating. Lily clung to James, holding him to her, not breaking away for air until she couldn’t help it and she tore her lips away. Immediately, James licked and sucked her pulse point and placed small kisses along her breasts._

_Fire trailed through her veins. She sucked in a breath, wrapped her legs around James’ waist and called, with desperation in her voice, “James.”_

_He looked up at her and smirked. “Yes, love?”_

_Lily pulled James up to her and bit lightly on his earlobe. She pressed her entire body against his. James moaned and pushed himself up and away from Lily._

_He gazed down at her, his head tilting to look at her entire face. Lily bit her lip and pulled herself up, placing a deep kiss to James’ shoulder. She bit him lightly, tilted her head and traced his jaw with her mouth. James’ hand massaged one of Lily’s thighs. He gripped it and pulled it up closer to him. Lily’s lips touched James’, and he simply stared into her eyes as he moved into her. Lily closed her eyes and gasped. Then, James closed his eyes as well and slid the rest of the way into her. Lily’s head fell back and she arched off of the bed. “James!” she moaned-_

\---

“Lily,” Jessica whispered. She shook Lily’s arm lightly as Lily moaned James’ name in her sleep. Lily groaned and turned her head. Jessica winced and shook Lily again. This time, Lily cracked open an eye.

“Jessica?” Lily asked groggily. She seemed to realize that she wasn’t in her bed. Quickly, she sat up and looked around the room. James was gone from behind his desk, and Cece, Cordy, Lacy and Aimee were all staring at her. She blinked. “What’s going on?”

“Well, glad you woke up… Sleeping Beauty,” Jessica replied sarcastically.

“You mean ‘Sleep- _talking_ ’ Beauty, don’t you?” Cece laughed.

Lily paled. “Oh god. _Oh, crap_!” She looked around at the others. “I talked in my sleep?”

“Oh yeah,” Cordy said.

“ _Moaned_ is more like it,” Cece joked.

Lily blushed. “ _Oh my God._ ”

“Yeah, too bad Lover Boy wasn’t around to hear you… he probably would have let the rest of us go early to ravish you or something.” Jessica said, waving her hand around.

“Ravish?” Lacy’s eyes narrowed. “Tell me you didn’t just use the word 'ravish,' Jessica.”

Jessica rolled her eyes. “What would you call it then?”

“Not ravish,” Lacy snapped.

Lily groaned and hid her head in her hands. “I hate detention.”

“Amen to that,” Cordy replied. The six girls glanced up as James reentered. He slowed when he saw them all watching him. His gaze caught Lily’s who quickly looked away.

“Well,” James looked at his watch, “you six only have another hour before you can go.”

Jessica dropped her head to the desk and mumbled underneath her breath, “ _Please ravish Lily. Please ravish Lily. Please ravish Lily. Please ravish Lily._ ”

Lily kicked her from across the desk, glaring. When James looked up at the noise, she smiled innocently and waited until he looked away to sigh and look back out the window. Next to her, she heard Jessica start up her mantra again. This time, she didn’t stop her.

\---

_Name each planet, the environment of the planet and the moon(s) for each planet._ Lily threw her quill down in frustration. She’d been staring at the words, reading them over and over again, for the past half an hour. Leaning back, she shook her head and played with her necklace. It was around ten at night, and tomorrow was Monday. Lily had, uncharacteristically, put her homework off until the last minute. Now, she was trying to finish her Astronomy homework.

“Hey Lily,” Lacy said.

Lily smiled up at her friend and closed her book. “Hey. What are you doing up?”

Lacy sat next to Lily on the couch. “I couldn’t sleep.” She eyed Lily’s book. “Studying?”

Lily groaned, pulling her hair up into a ponytail. “Trying to finish my homework, actually.”

Lacy mock gasped. “The Head Girl didn’t have her homework done by the end of Friday? You must be joking!”

Lily held a pillow over her face. “I know,” she said, her voice muffled. “I’m a horrible example for the younger classes.”

Lacy laughed and grabbed the pillow. “Seriously, you spent two hours in the library today. What were you doing? You couldn’t have been ogling Madam Pince.”

Lily made a disgusted face. “Ew.”

Silence settled over the two before Lacy nudged Lily. “Come on, tell me what’s up. Something besides school is bugging you. Is it James?”

Lily frowned, considering whether or not to tell Lacy what was bugging her. Coming to a decision, she moved her books and bag off of the couch and turned to face Lacy. As she spoke, she pulled her legs beneath her. “Okay, here’s the thing.”

Lacy settled back onto the couch.

“Honestly, yeah, I’m stressed out about James. Not just because I don’t know how to deal with him now, but because I don’t really understand how I feel about him.” Lily waved her hand. “I mean, with my two other 'one night-stands,' I didn’t really _feel_ anything.”

“You mean, not what you feel for James, right?” Lacy asked.

Lily nodded. “Yeah, I mean... I think so. Ugh!” Lily threw her hands in the air. “See what I mean? _I_ can’t even tell how I feel. I just know that I feel this thing for James that I haven’t felt for my past one-nighters, which has to mean that it isn’t just a one night thing.” Lily leaned back against the couch. “I sound like a crazy person.”

Lacy shrugged. “I’ve heard worse the day after a dance.”

“The girls can get pretty crazy can’t they?” Lily said teasingly. Lacy nodded and Lily smiled slightly. “I don’t know Lace… I just… like him.” At the expression on Lacy’s face, Lily asked, “I’m such a school girl, aren’t I?”

Lacy smirked. “Just a little bit.”

Lily stood up from the couch. “Well, since I’m a school girl, I’m going to do something school girls do.”

“And what’s that?” Lacy asked.

Lily pulled Lacy up from the couch. “Break the rules. I’m suddenly craving chocolate. Want to come with me to the kitchens to find some?”

Lacy tapped her chin with one finger. “Let me think… _yes_!”

Lily laughed and began to tug Lacy towards the portrait hole.

\---

“Perfect,” Lily mumbled, sipping on the hot chocolate that had just been brought to her. The house elf glowed with delight.

“Is there anything else I can get you, Miss?”

“No, thank you,” Lily replied. She looked over at Lacy who shook her head. “We’re all set.”

As soon as the house elf had walked away, Lacy leaned across the small table she and Lily were sitting at and whispered, “Last year I gained five pounds from sneaking down to the kitchens with you constantly and apparently I haven’t learned my lesson.”

Lily snorted. “Oh please, Lace, all I offer is company. You wouldn’t be able to resist the chocolate of the Hogwarts’ kitchens if you were paid one million galleons.”

Lacy nodded. “True.” She took another sip of her hot chocolate and a grin of satisfaction fell over her face.

Minutes later, another house elf approached them, this time with a tray of cookies. At first, Lacy and Lily both declined, but at the rejected look on the house elf’s face, they each took three. Seven cookies later, both girls were ready to leave.

“Thank you!” Lily called one last time, ducking out of the kitchens. She shot a look in Lacy’s direction. “You know, leaving is always the worst part about coming down here.”

“I know,” Lacy said. “They always try to get you to take food back with you.”

Lily ran her fingers along the stone wall as the two walked back to their house. “I still have to finish that essay for Astronomy.”

“Astronomy?” Lacy asked. “That’s not due until Tuesday.”

Lily stopped in her tracks to stare at her friend. “Are you joking?”

Lacy shook her head. “We don’t have Astronomy on Monday. Remember?”

Lily groaned and fell back against the wall. “No, my mind completely blanked out on that ‘oh-so-nice-to-know’ fact. Crap! What is wrong with me?!”

“You’re stressed out,” Lacy said, standing near her friend. “It’s completely normal for you to be too, after everything that’s happened with you and… Professor Potter.”

Lily groaned and rolled her eyes. “Oh for God’s sake, Lace, just say Professor Sexy like Cece continues to do-” Lily cut off as Lacy suddenly pinched her arm hard. She looked up at Lacy to ask what her problem was, when she heard Lacy say, “It’s… um… nice to uh… see you, Professor Potter.”

Lily closed her eyes. _No. Way._ She opened them to see Lacy shooting her a sympathetic look. Finally, Lily turned around to see James standing in the shadows near the corner they had been about to turn. She hoped he hadn’t been standing there too long.

“That’s the second time you’ve been caught out of bed and near the kitchens past bedtime, Miss Evans,” James said, his voice deep, sending shivers down Lily’s spine.

Lily shrugged, trying to at least keep her cool facade. “I have a sweet tooth.”

“Apparently,” James replied.

A silence fell over the three. Lily shifted, uncomfortable under James’ gaze. How was it, that he seemed to always come upon her at the worst moments? Here she was, about to have a mental breakdown _about_ him, and he turns the corner. Did she have the worst luck in the world or what?

“Well,” Lacy grabbed Lily’s arm, “we’ll just be on our way, then, and we promise to never sneak out past curfew again.”

“I’ll walk you,” James said, stepping in front of the two girls.

Lily shot a pleading look in Lacy’s direction. Lacy merely shrugged. What could she do? With a sigh, Lily looked back at James and said, “Thanks.”

Lacy and Lily both began to walk back in the direction of their house, both feeling James’ gaze on them. The three walked in complete silence until they reached the portrait that would give them entrance to Gryffindor house. Lacy quickly said the password and crawled through, expecting Lily to follow.

Lily turned to face James. “Thanks,” then she added, “for walking us.”

James nodded towards the common room. “You don’t stay in the Head rooms?”

Lily looked at the common room and shrugged. “Dylan doesn’t use the rooms so I’m sort of alone there.” She looked back at James. “I still have a bed in the Gryffindor dorms so I sometimes stay with my friends. Especially on nights where I forget to finish my Astronomy homework. The Gryffindor tower has a better view than anything at the Head rooms.”

“Well, you could always use the Astronomy tower,” James said, leaning against the wall. Lily smiled slightly at the sight of him. The first year girl inside her who had had the hugest crush on James Potter, simply beamed at how gorgeous he looked. His hair fell just right against his forehead and his lips… _God_ , did Lily love his lips.

“Come on!” Lily scoffed, remembering that she was having a conversation with James and staring at him wasn’t getting them anywhere. “You haven’t been gone from Hogwarts _that_ long. You know that what goes on in the Astronomy tower is no where near homework.”

James laughed. “I don’t know, I think I remember one or two people studying up there.”

“Probably Ravenclaws,” Lily replied.

James nodded. “Yeah, I think they were actually.”

“Figures!” Lily said, grinning. A smile was spread across her face. Suddenly, James was reaching a hand out to her, to caress her cheek. With a slight gasp, Lily watched James with wide eyes. She could feel her heart beating wildly. His thumb traced over her lips briefly before he unexpectedly pulled Lily towards him and his lips fell onto hers in a rough kiss.

Lily grabbed the sides of his shirt, pulling herself closer and opened her mouth to his tongue demanding entrance. Everything was fast and rushed. It was the same as it had been that one night, when Lily and James had had their first kiss. This held the same… magic. James stepped forward, much closer to Lily. Another step and Lily was against the cold stone wall. It was a weird sensation. Her entire backside was cold, but her front was warm, surrounded by James.

“Why were things weird this morning?” Lily asked, leaning forward to kiss James’ jaw. Her fingers played with his shirt, sometimes slipping underneath and sometimes just running over it. She looked up at James to see him watching her. His eyes traced the movement of her hands for a few more minutes before he finally responded.

“Because Sirius is a bloody git,” he took her lips in his. Lily’s hand came up to hold his to her cheek.

When they next broke apart Lily said, “Not Sirius. _You_. You seemed… angry.” James kissed her again. “You seemed like you were angry at me.” Her eyes were closed and her voice was soft. James leant down, kissing her fiercely, as if proving that he wasn’t angry.

“I was annoyed,” James said. “You’d left too early this morning.”

“Well, you could have said that,” Lily replied, smiling against his lips.

“I asked you to stay,” James said. He gently tugged on Lily’s ponytail. “You were the one who left.”

“I don’t know how to deal with you,” Lily said truthfully. She searched his face. He was too good at hiding his emotions. She couldn’t tell what he was thinking. “I’ve never had a… _thing_ with one of my professors. I mean… I’m not the type of person who can hide their feelings and I don’t really know how I feel about you or what we’re even doing.”

James absently played with Lily’s fingers. He kissed her lightly. “We’ll just take it day by day.”

“Not worrying about tomorrow?” Lily asked, a small smile on her face. “I kind of knew you’d say that.”

“Look Lily, I didn’t come to Hogwarts with the intention of seducing the girls here,” James said. He shrugged. “Dumbledore asked a favor of me.” He looked around the hallway and a ghost of a smile covered his face. “It’s kind of weird being back here as anything other than a student.” He gazed back down at Lily. “I’m in the same position as you are… I don’t know how to act around you in front of others, and I don’t know how I feel about you and this thing… only that I like it.”

“So, we do have a thing then?” Lily asked.

James nodded. “Yeah, we do.”

With a soft smile, Lily said, “Alright then, day by day.” She wrapped her arms around his waist and pulled him in for kiss. It lasted only seconds, before Lily was slipping under James’ arms. She walked towards the portrait hole, turning back only to give James a small smile before going in.

The portrait swiftly closed behind her, leaving James to stare at the Fat Lady. She was in her dressing gown, and shot him a disapproving look. “I’d thought you’d left for good!”

He shot her a smile she would remember as his ‘Marauder’ smile. “What can I say? I missed you!”

With a ‘humph!’, the Fat Lady shuffled around in her portrait. “You just make sure you don’t go causing any trouble. _Especially_ , with Miss Lily. She’s a good girl, that one. Going to be an amazing witch, she is.”

“Yeah,” James said, blankly staring at the portrait, “she is.” He shook his head and smiled up at the Fat Lady. “Good night, Violet!”

The Fat Lady’s eyes widened, forgetting that the Marauders had been some of the few students who had known her name. “Good night, Mr. Potter.”

But by then, James already had his back turned and was walking away.


	8. Physical Attraction

  


_**This is the end of the line, guys. It's all I've got of Hot For Teacher. Thanks for sticking around. Maybe, one day, I'll be able to rewrite it exactly as I see it in my head... and finally finish it. Until then - thanks for the support. I love you for it. Cheers. :)** _

_**Chapter 8: Physical Attraction** _

_And when you smile  
It's just makin' me want you more and more  
_\- “Physical Attraction” by Madonna

Lily walked into the library searching for a particular professor. She spotted him sitting alone at a table, so, grinning, Lily made her way over. It was around eight, and most of the other students were either in the dorms or the Great Hall for dinner. Not hungry, she had opted to go to the Head rooms to start preparing for her meeting with Dylan later that night. On the way, she’d heard a few of the first year girls gushing about how James Potter was in the library.

She’d decided to change her route.

“Hello, gorgeous,” Lily greeted. There were too many people in the library for her to greet James properly.

He looked up, somewhat surprised to hear her voice. Then, a brilliant smile lit up his face. “Hey you. What are you doing in here?”

“Stalking you,” Lily joked. She sat down in the chair next to him and nosily leaned over to gaze at the papers that were laid out in front of him. “Grading papers?”

“Yeah. The first years have so much to learn,” he replied with a smile. Then he pushed the papers out of the way and asked, “It’s dinner now. Aren’t you hungry?”

Lily shook her head. “Nope. Are you?”

“I had a big lunch,” James answered. A silence enveloped them. Lily hadn’t had a chance to talk to James—alone—since Sunday night, the night that they had agreed they had a “thing.” And Lily was surprised about how she felt about it. At some point, she’d been able to get over the fact that he was her professor and she began to think of him as just another guy who she was interested in.

“So, why are you in the library instead of your office?”

James sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Sirius has taken over my office. The git claims he needs it for tomorrow’s lesson.”

Lily smiled. “And you didn’t kick him out?”

“I’m too nice of a bloke,” James grinned. “Besides, he’d just find another way to distract me, and I need to get these papers graded.”

“I don’t know whether or not I should be insulted to _not_ be a distraction,” Lily teased, casually placing her hand on top of his. He flipped his hand over, linking their fingers together. His thumb began to caress her palm. Lily lowered her eyes to their hands, and a small smile played over her lips.

From behind James, Lily caught sight of two girls. They were staring at the two of them, open-mouthed. Sense and a little bit of guilt rushed into Lily’s brain; she was Head Girl and he was the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. They were going to have to be more careful; it was one thing to secretly be seeing each other, but Hogwarts wouldn’t appreciate a public relationship. Lily’s eyes flew back up to James’s and she slowly pulled her hand from his grasp.

“I have to go meet Dylan,” Lily explained.

James nodded. “For a Head meeting?”

“Yeah,” Lily said. She played with the shoulder of her bag. “It should be done around ten.”

“Just in time for curfew,” James said, his voice teasing.

Lily’s bright emerald eyes met his hazel ones and she grinned. “Well, I _did_ make a promise to a certain professor of mine that I wouldn’t go out past curfew anymore…”

“So, I guess you’ll just have to stay in the Head rooms tonight,” James stated. Though Lily had moved her hand, James’s hand was still caressing the table as if it were her hand there in its place. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from the sensual movements. _Get a grip, Evans! It’s a bloody_ table _; concentrate on something else._ Even though Lily’s mind kept yelling at her to tear her eyes away from him, she couldn’t. Watching the movement of his hand suddenly had her feeling every sensation that his hands touching her body had sent through her. She could feel a blush forming on her cheeks.

“You’d probably get lonely though, wouldn’t you?” James stopped moving his hand.

Lily looked up at him sharply. “Lonely?” She licked her lips. “Oh yeah.”

James arched an eyebrow and Lily couldn’t help but grin. She walked two steps towards James, until she was standing over him. She leaned forward, as if she was about to kiss him, when at the last minute she turned her head and reached for his quill. On one of his blank pieces of paper, she wrote two words.

“Carpe diem?” James asked, reading her writing.

“It’s the password,” Lily answered. With a twinkle in her eyes, Lily added, “Dylan thought of it.” Then she walked out of the library, feeling the burn of James’s gaze on her back the entire way.

\---

Lily looked at the clock and tried not to roll her eyes for what had to be the fifth time in the past half hour. She’d assumed that Dylan would _want_ to get back to the Ravenclaw tower early, but all he could seem to do was talk. And talk. And talk. And talk. And talk… and it was almost 10:45. James had to have given up on her by now.

“Dylan,” Lily snapped. When she saw him jump she felt a stream of guilt flash through her. She offered him a small smile before saying, “I know that you want to be on top of things, but I promise you that we’ve gone over our schedules, the Prefect’s schedules, and every other person in this school’s schedules more than enough. Don’t you think?”

Dylan didn’t get a chance to nod before Lily was smiling and putting her things back into her bag. “Good, then I guess we’re done for the night?”

“Well, sure,” Dylan replied. “Sorry, Lily. I didn’t mean to keep you up.”

“It’s okay, Dylan.” Lily said, a tight smile on her face. She liked the guy—really—but there was only so much a person could take when they were waiting for a gorgeous professor to shag them senseless.

“Then I guess I’ll just go to sleep.” Dylan gave Lily a hesitant wave before heading towards his bedroom.

“Whoa. What are you doing?” Lily asked.

“Going to my room,” Dylan replied, pointing his thumb in the direction of his room. “Did you want to talk more about the plans for this year—”

“No!” Lily shouted. She cast a look around. “I just… you just never sleep here is all.”

“Oh,” Dylan smiled sheepishly. “Well, I’m too tired to walk back tonight and I kind of want to sleep in a little tomorrow. The other guys are getting up early to practice Quidditch and they’re really loud, so…”

Lily almost screamed.

“… good night, Lily.” Dylan said.

Lily smiled weakly and fell down to the couch. She heard some water running in Dylan’s bathroom and picked up the nearest pillow. She held it over her face and screamed into it. How was this happening to her? Why was she being punished? What had she done to deserve such—

The pillow was ripped from Lily’s hands and thrown to the ground. Startled, Lily opened her eyes, ready to yell at Dylan when she saw _him_.

“When did you get here?” she asked, the surprise evident in her voice.

“Around twenty seconds ago,” James answered. He leaned over her, and Lily couldn’t help but close her eyes. His smell flooded her senses and she suddenly felt completely smothered in him. His hand wandered down the front of her robes until it slid underneath her shirt. His fingers brushed lightly against her stomach and Lily felt butterflies.

She opened her eyes to boldly meet his and found his face barely an inch from hers.

“Hi,” she whispered, almost shyly.

His free hand came up to caress Lily’s face and his slender fingers traced her lips. With a twinkle in his eyes, he whispered back, “Hi.”

She smiled and leaned up so her lips were closer to his. Lily waited for a moment, trying to hold on to the feeling of wanting to kiss James and James wanting to kiss her. A grin covered her lips and she pulled herself up to finally cover James’s lips with her own. It was electric.

Their tongues each fought for control before finally settling to just caressing each other. James’s mouth moved along to the corner of hers where he lightly nibbled on her lip. Lily moaned.

“Lily? Are you okay?”

Lily’s eyes shot open to look at Dylan’s closed door. Dylan’s closed door, which Dylan was just _happening_ to open.

“Who the hell is that?” James asked, standing up, his eyes trained on the door.

Lily quickly grabbed James’s wrist and pulled herself to her feet, before dragging him towards the direction of her room. She barely managed to get him inside of it before Dylan was peeking his head out to look into the main common room.

“I’m sorry Dylan, did you say something?” Lily asked nonchalantly.

Dylan raised an eyebrow. “You weren’t just moaning right now?”

“Moaning? What would I have to moan about?” Lily asked, trying to laugh. Unfortunately, her laugh ended up getting caught in her throat and she ended up coughing instead.

“Okay. I was just… checking,” Dylan answered.

“Thanks for that,” Lily muttered, catching her breath.

“So, you’re okay?”

“Oh yeah,” Lily replied, waving a hand lightly in the air. She smiled brightly at him. “Is that it, then?”

“Well, yes…”

“Okay. Good night, Dylan!” Lily said quickly, before sliding back into her room and closing her door. A second later, she heard Dylan’s door shut as well.

Lily looked up to find James staring at her in half amusement and half confusion. “Forget to tell me you had a friend spending the night?”

Lily locked her door. “Dylan decided—spur of the moment—to stay the night here. I didn’t even know it until he was practically changing into his nightclothes.”

“He changed in front of you?” James asked.

“Exaggeration,” Lily grinned. She whipped her wand out and cast a quick, but efficient, silencing charm on the room. Deciding to be brave, Lily began to unbutton her shirt. She waited for James to comprehend what she was doing before she asked in a sultry voice, “You’ll be staying too, won’t you?”

“Well,” James began, his eyes trained on Lily’s slow moving fingers, “I’ve never actually seen the Head Girl’s room.”

“Not according to the rumors,” Lily replied. She let her shirt slide off of her shoulders and onto the ground.

James grinned. “Yeah, well, those were credited to Sirius. He couldn’t stand the thought of me not shagging the Head Girl. He said it was an unwritten rule.”

“Hmm…” Lily cocked her head and looked in the direction of Dylan’s room. “Now there’s a rule to consider.”

Suddenly, James was in front of her. Lily had to tilt her head back a bit to look into his eyes. Confidently, Lily reached behind her to unhook her bra. James’s eyes were locked with hers. The bra came undone and Lily let it drop to the floor to join her shirt.

Ever so slowly, James’s eyes left hers to glance down at her naked chest. Lily could feel her entire body warm up with his stare. She almost got nervous and almost brought her arms up to cover herself when James’s hands caught hold of them.

“Don’t,” James stated, his eyes still looking down at her body. “You’re beautiful, you know that?”

Lily shook her head even though he wasn’t even looking. She managed to get one of her arms out of his grip and she pulled her hair out of the clip she’d had it in. Her hair fell down around her shoulders. James blinked, as if coming out of a trance. Then, his eyes met Lily’s and it was like a switch went off. He reached for her and vigorously pulled her towards him. His lips crashed down upon hers and a hand came up on her back, pulling her against him.

The feel of his clothing against her skin sent a rippling of excitement through Lily. She threw her arms around James and pulled—hard. He got the message and lifted her up, her legs instantly wrapping around his waist.

James stumbled uncertainly for a second, still deeply kissing Lily, before he pushed her up against the door. Her back hit it with a loud smack. Lily didn’t even notice.

Her hands framed James’s face as she kissed him. With her past boyfriends, she’d always been used to their kisses. It didn’t mean that she didn’t like them, it just meant that they were familiar.

Each kiss with James was different. They each made her feel something new that managed to set her entire body on fire.

Slowly, one of Lily’s hands slid down to James’s chest. She blindly began to unbutton his shirt until she was furiously wrenching it off his shoulders. Then, she was yanking his undershirt over his head and throwing it to the floor. Once his naked flesh touched hers, she sighed in complete pleasure before pulling him as close to her as she could.

James broke the kiss, his mouth making a trail of hot, wet kisses down her neck.

Having time to actually think, Lily was able to take the situation into consideration. “You know,” she said, breathing heavily, “this is what it was like the first time.”

James looked up at her, his eyes completely dark with lust.

“You forgot to take off my skirt then too,” Lily continued.

Slowly, James moved his hands from Lily’s back to the back of her skirt. He kept his eyes on hers as he slowly unzipped her black skirt. Instead of dropping her to the floor and letting the skirt fall the floor, James worked her legs out of the skirt individually. He held it up, dangling it on one of his fingers. Lily looked at it, then him. Then, he dropped the skirt, breaking Lily’s gaze. She watched it flutter softly to the ground. A small little gasp fell from her lips and she looked at back up at James. He grinned wolfishly, before kissing Lily again. This time he took complete control of the kiss, fighting Lily every time she tried to gain the upper hand. Minutes later, he began the trail down her neck once again. Only this time, he didn’t stop there. He continued further until he was laving her chest with kisses.

She bit her lip to keep from moaning as his tongue worked complete havoc on her senses. “James,” she breathed. It only seemed to make him suck, kiss, and lick even harder. She held her hands to his head, half holding him in place and half running her fingers through his hair. Lily’s eyes shut briefly in pure pleasure. They shot open again merely seconds later, when James pulled away from her. She looked at him with one eyebrow raised.

He didn’t answer.

Lily dropped her hand to the buckle of his belt. She slowly undid it, unsure if he would stop her. He didn’t. Then, not caring, Lily hurriedly unzipped his pants and slid a hand into his boxers. She watched as his jaw clenched when she cupped him. She grinned.

“Lily,” James mumbled. He looked down to see her smiling at him and he pulled himself away from her.

“What—” Before James let Lily finish her question, she found herself being tossed through the air and landing unceremoniously on the bed.

“It goes too quickly if we’re anywhere but the bed,” James explained, suddenly appearing above her. “It’s something that I’m going to have to _teach_ you in time…” He slid her underwear down her thighs. “… but for now, the bed will have to do.”

“It works fine for me,” Lily replied heatedly. Impatiently, she pulled James down to her. She kissed him then, like it was the last time she’d be able to.

“You’re complete fire,” James whispered against her lips when they pulled away from each other. He settled over her and her thighs parted welcomingly. Lily hissed in pleasure as he entered her. Her eyes shut.

James thrust into her again, this time harder. “Look at me, Lily,” he whispered into her ear, before lightly nipping her earlobe.

Lily opened her eyes to see his face moving above hers.

“Don’t close your eyes,” James demanded. Lily watched him, considered him, then smiled in a completely satisfied way, and nodded.

\---

“Where the hell is Lily?” Jessica asked for what had to be the fifth time that morning. Jessica, Lacy and Cece were late getting ready. Or rather, Cece and Jessica were late… Lacy was patiently waiting for the both of them, although it looked like Jessica wasn’t bound to be ready anytime soon. The tall, lithe, brunette was dressed in the bare essential uniform (a white button down shirt with only the middle three buttoned, and a black pleated skirt) and for the past ten minutes, had done nothing but uncharacteristically pace the bathroom floor.

Cece pouted seductively in the mirror. She grinned, pleased with her appearance. “What do you think, Lace?”

Lacy looked up from her book. “Too pink.”

“Too pink?” Cece looked back into the mirror. “I don’t think so.”

Lacy shrugged and looked back down at her book.

“Do I look like a bloody _mirage_ or something?” Jessica snapped. She threw her brush down onto the countertop of the nearest sink. “Do any of you know where Lily is?”

“Head meeting,” Lacy replied.

“Prefect meeting,” Cece said at the same time.

Jessica looked between the two. “I thought she was meeting Dylan last night.”

“She probably went to sleep in the Head dorms,” Cece stated. She shot Jessica a look. “Why?”

Jessica sighed. “I just wanted to talk to her about something.” She turned back to the mirror. “It’s not that important.”

Lacy closed her book and eyed the brunette curiously. Out of all of them, Jessica was the one who hid her emotions the best. She had no qualms about telling a person when they were acting like a bitch or stupid, but when it came down to how she was feeling, she was like a stonewall.

“Stop analyzing me, Lacy,” Jessica snapped.

Lacy jumped, snapping her eyes back into focus. “Huh?”

“You were psychoanalyzing me again,” Jessica said. “You know I hate when you do that.”

“Sorry,” Lacy offered. She tucked her book under her arm and hopped off of the bathroom sink. “I’m going to go join Cordy and Aimee in the Great Hall.”

“Okay,” Cece replied, paying little attention to her two friends.

Jessica nodded in Lacy’s direction. “See you in class.”

As Lacy walked out of the bathroom, she shot another quick little gaze in Jessica’s direction just in time to see her apply some of Cece’s lip gloss to her own lips. With a raised eyebrow, Lacy grabbed her school bag and set out for the Great Hall.

\---

When Lily entered the Great Hall, she found Cordy and Lacy standing on top of the Gryffindor table, staring in complete fascination at a crowd that had gathered around the Ravenclaw table. She noticed that the Hall was lacking any of the Professors. Frowning, she hurried to join her friends.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

Cordy nodded into the crowd. “Aimee’s in a catfight.”

“What?!” Lily shrieked. She climbed onto the table, grabbing onto Cordy’s hand when she almost fell.

“She’s not actually one of the ones fighting… she just tried to break it apart and got caught in it,” Lacy explained.

“Toast?” Cordy offered, holding out a piece layered with butter. Lily took it. “Go back a bit… What catfight?”

Cordy nodded towards the group of middle in between the crowd. She pointed out a small blonde girl in the middle that was currently pulling on the hair of another girl. “That’s Elizabeth Jackson—”

“The sixth year Hufflepuff?” Lily asked.

Cordy nodded. “The one with the huge—” She made a gesture with her hands.

“Breasts?” Lily guessed. Cordy nodded. Lily took a bite of her toast. “Okay, I got it… keep going.”

“Well, apparently she’s been shagging Ben,” Cordy said, now pointing him out among the crowd. Ben was a handsome seventh year Ravenclaw who played Keeper for the House Quidditch team.

He’d also been Aimee’s first.

Now, he was trying to hide behind Aimee, while still trying to see the fight, which at the moment had a thin, mousy girl holding Elizabeth in a headlock.

“Whoa,” Lily said. She stood up onto her tiptoes to try to get a look at the other girl. “Is that Candice Shakers?!”

“Oh yeah,” Lacy said gleefully. She bit down on a piece of bacon. “I’ve never liked her, you know. She called me a bookworm once. _That_ coming from the girl who knows Madame Pince’s first name _and_ birth date.”

Lily winced as Elizabeth kicked Candice in the shin. “Why aren’t they using their wands?”

“Aimee managed to grab them before it got bad,” Cordy answered.

“You don’t think _this_ is bad? And finish the damn story, Cordy, before I kill you!” Lily threatened.

“Right!” Cordy said. “So, Elizabeth has been shagging Ben, and apparently he dumped her last night because he wanted space.”

“He used the same lame excuse on Aimee,” Lily muttered.

“Yeah, and she took it about as calmly as Aimee did,” Cordy said.

“She dumped his eggs on his lap, too?” Lily asked.

“She attempted it,” Cordy replied, “but she ended up tripping over her feet and spilled the eggs all over Candice’s book. Candice freaked out, shouted something about how it wasn’t her book, it was worth a fortune and Elizabeth better pay for it… blah, blah, blah. Elizabeth snapped something worthy of Hufflepuff wit, Candice threw _her_ eggs at Elizabeth, then Elizabeth freaked out and it just turned into complete chaos.”

“So, how did Aimee get dragged into it?”

“That was actually Aimee’s fault,” Lacy said, leaning over so Lily could hear her over the jeers of their classmates. “She wanted a closer look at Ben’s humiliation and the crowd trapped her in. Elizabeth actually mistook her for Candice for a second and tried to slap her.”

“Holy shit!” Lily muttered, turning to watch the fight more closely.

“It was okay,” Cordy assured her. “She ducked and it hit Ben instead. Alls well that ends well.”

“Speaking of,” Lily looked around the Great Hall, “where are all of the professors?”

“No one knows,” Lacy replied. “We heard something about a last minute meeting but…”

Lily looked at her friend to see why she had suddenly gone silent. “Lace, what’s wrong-” Her mouth fell open when she looked in the direction of the entrance of the Great Hall. Somehow, Elizabeth had gotten a hold of a wand and was now pointing it at a fleeing Ben. Candice was being held back by, surprisingly, Dylan Daniels. A bright yellow light flashed throughout the hall before it hit Ben in the back and sent him flying through the doors, which promptly shut with a loud bang behind him.

The entire hall was silent except for the clang of the wand that Elizabeth had been holding. She shot a quick glare in the direction of a guy who was currently holding one of her arms in a tight hold. It must have been his wand that she had grabbed. He quickly dropped her arm and slowly bent down to pick up his own wand.

Elizabeth and Candice each shot each other heated glances before Elizabeth held her hand out for her wand. Eyeing her skeptically, Aimee held the wand out. Elizabeth snatched it and headed back into the direction of her table. Seconds later, Candice did the same.

And for the first time in what had to be years, a bunch of the Slytherins began to applaud. Soon, the rest of the students began to clap and cheer as well. Lily, Cordy and Lacy hopped down from the table and Lily caught Dylan’s eyes above the crowd. He nodded in the direction of the hallway and Lily nodded back. She would check to see if Ben was alright.

“Head Girl duties, guys,” Lily said. “I have to go see if the jerk’s okay.”

“Sure,” Lacy replied. “We’ll save you a seat.”

Lily smiled her thanks and pushed her way past the people in her way. Several had begun to drift over in the direction of where Ben had flown through the doors and Lily had to resist using the same spell to get them all out of her way. Finally, she had to resort to just pushing them all out of her way and shooting them all scorching glares.

When she reached the front of the crowd, she turned around to face them with her wand held out threateningly at her side. A few of them immediately turned around to head back to their seats, while the braver ones stared her down.

Irritated, Lily raised a single eyebrow. Cursing and mumbling, they turned around to rejoin their friends. Lily shook her head and took a step outside of the hall, making sure to close the doors firmly behind her.

“Ben?” Lily called, surprised to find the hallway empty. She took a step out further. “Ben?”

“Lily?” a voice whispered.

Lily turned to look at a knight a little ways down the hall. Peeking out from behind it was Ben. “Ben?” she asked, this time her face disbelieving. “Are you _hiding_?”

He rolled his eyes. “Obviously, Lily. Now, could you help me out?”

“Help you do what? I just came out of pure duty to make sure you weren’t in need of any medical attention, and now that I see you aren’t lying on the floor bleeding to death, I can go—”

“No!” Ben shouted as Lily moved to leave.

She froze mid-step and shot him a questioning glance. “Did you just tell me _no_?”

“No! I mean, yes, I mean…” Ben fumbled for an answer that wouldn’t piss Lily off. “Listen, Lily, I need you to do me a favor.”

Lily crossed her arms. “As fun as it would be to be your bodyguard, Ben, I’m really not that eager for you to _not_ have your arse handed to you on a platter… especially by a girl.”

“I need you to get me clothes.”

Lily blinked. “Excuse me?”

Ben groaned and stepped out a little bit from the knight. Lily looked down to see a tanned, muscled leg peek out from behind the metal. A _naked_ , tanned, muscled leg.

She quickly looked up at him. “How the _bloody hell_ did that happen?!”

“Blame it on Elizabeth!” Ben snapped. “My clothes were just gone once I hit the ground! Believe me, it’s not like I just stripped in the middle of the fucking hallway.”

Lily held a hand up over her mouth.

Ben glared at her from behind the knight. “You’d better not be fucking laughing, Evans,” he threatened.

A loud laugh escaped Lily’s lips. “Or what? You’ll taunt me from behind the knight for the rest of my life?” A growl came from Ben’s corner. It only caused Lily to laugh harder. “Tell me you don’t see the hilarity in this!”

“I don’t,” he snapped. “Now get me some goddamn clothes!”

Lily frowned. “Fine,” she heard a sigh of relief come from behind the knight, “but first I have to find Professor Dumbledore and tell him what happened—”

“Oh shit, come on, Lily!” Ben pleaded. “Please don’t just leave me here. At least give me your cloak or something.”

Lily fought to tell him to fuck off and just walk away back into the Great Hall. Ben had screwed Aimee over and had hurt her considerably, but Lily couldn’t just leave him there… her conscience would allow it, but Professor Dumbledore might not, and Lily wasn’t about to throw the title of Head Girl away because Ben was a jerk who deserved all he got. At least the school had seen him get beat by a girl—that would injure his pride for at least a year.

“Fine,” Lily grumbled. She stalked over towards the knight and began to unbutton her cloak.

“Thank you,” Ben said sincerely. Lily rolled her eyes and held it out for him to take. In a hurry to cover himself up, Ben grabbed it quickly and pulled hard. The cloak got caught on the sword of the knight and the knight began to tip over...

Lily’s eyes widened and she reached for the knight, but it was too late. The knight had already begun to fall, carrying a stark naked Ben with it. Lily shrieked as Ben grabbed her arm in an attempt to keep himself from falling, but instead managed to drag Lily down with him. Lily fell through the air before landing hard on her back. She groaned loudly when Ben fell on top of her, along with what must be the knight’s sword

The clatter of the knight falling echoed throughout the hallway but Lily could hardly register it with the sudden pain in her head.

“Ow,” she moaned, suddenly leaning up, pulling her leg up closer to her and apparently extremely close to Ben’s waist.

“Oh God, Lily, _don’t_ ,” Ben growled. Lily’s eyes grew wide when she suddenly took into consideration what was poking her in the stomach. She slowly looked down between the two of them in shock to find that her cloak was barely covering Ben’s butt, and her own skirt had risen up to her thighs.

“What the _fuck_?!” Lily cried. She put her hands on top of Ben’s shoulders to push him away from her when she heard an angry voice from above them say, “I could ask the same thing.”

Lily’s neck practically snapped in half with how quickly she turned to look up. Standing above them was Sirius Black and an incredibly pissed-off James Potter.


End file.
